Leaf Crown Lake
by Fallen Pens
Summary: Lincoln finds himself stuck in a rut in his life, when Clyde suggests to him the idea of becoming a counselor for a special summer camp to help others in need, he sees it as the perfect opportunity to get a change of pace. But will things be as simple as he hopes? Or is there a lot more to worry about than he originally thought?
1. Rut

**Authors Note: Well, I hope you all enjoy my new story, I don't have an update schedule in mind (yet) but I owe you all for the patience, I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you desire for it to be continued. This is Fallen Pens, dropping out. Also I should mention, this is not an incest story, I had changed my mind against that in the last few days, apologies again.**

* * *

Summer had barely begun. Only four days having passed since schools had closed to let everyone enjoy their freedom and all the plans they had in mind. The small city of Michigan, Royal Woods, was more active this time of year.

"I love summer. I always have and always will. A lot of my best memories are from summer… but so far not this year. Honestly, it's felt pretty gloomy since the year started… and I really have no clue how to fix it," Lincoln Loud sat on a bench, in the park that he came to with a few of his younger sisters who requested him to.

The fourteen-year-old thought to himself, consumed by his mind at the moment more than anything else. He had been in a slump since the new year began. He had been going through day by day, yet whatever insanity ensued could not liven up the dull nature that he felt. He tilted his head back on the bench, feeling the sun in the nearly clear sky beating down upon him. He was unintentionally getting a tan, since all he did since summer holiday started was lay outside somewhere and gaze off into space.

"Are you depressed?" A voice sounded when his head was tilted back. He felt a refreshing cold chocolate popsicle get shoved into his mouth. He sat up straight with a raised eyebrow and saw his fifth eldest sister beside him.

"Lynn? When'd you get here?" Lincoln coughed, taking the popsicle out of his mouth.

"I was with my other baseball partners to thank our coach for the season. When we finished, I thought I'd come by to see if you were alright," Lynn explained, not trying too hard to hide her clear sadness. Lincoln knew how she felt. When summer started, everybody was sick of playing sports and would treat summer as a time to rest and recover their sore limbs. Lynn on the other hand was the polar opposite, as result everyone distanced themselves from her.

"I'm sorry, Lynn. I'm sure your next coach will be just as good," the middle Loud child gave her a one armed hug. She was going through one last goodbye to the long time baseball coach of three years. He had announced his last season due to a near death experience after a baseball cracked his skull not so long back.

" _I hate summer…_ " Lynn sighed. She put the chocolate treat into her mouth, beginning to suck on it like Lily would with a pacifier. He kept up the one armed embrace.

"But you don't have to worry about me. I'm not depressed. I'm just real deep in a rut," Lincoln reassured, thankful for his family's concern. All of his sisters feared this ever since he first turned thirteen. They were worried that one day their only brother would begin to lose his mind to his hormones. They only got more worried after a year of supposed calm, becoming more fearful now that Lincoln was hiding his true emotions from them.

"Where'd you get the ice cream by the way?" Lincoln asked. His entire family was chocolate addicts. He too enjoyed the chocolate popsicle a lot, especially for the hot weather.

"Oh, the ice cream guy… y'know, the guy who rides down hills on his cart and crashes a lot? He's giving free ice cream out today to celebrate the start of summer," Lynn explained, pointing toward the ice cream man who had a line of entire families in front of him, all eager to get a frozen treat.

"I swear, that guy is bursting with nothing but happiness," Lincoln muttered, wondering if having free ice cream available at all times was a constant mood booster. He kept munching away at his chocolate ice cream with Lynn trying to relax.

" **Did you say free ice cream?!** " They heard Lana and Lola. The two stood in front of them with excited looks, their missing front teeth showing from their bright smiles.

" **Where?!** " Lana pleadingly demanded. Lynn pointed a finger to the man on the far end of the park.

"Thank you!" Lola ran off ahead in such a rush that she almost had let her tiara fall off her blonde head.

"Wait up!" Lana chased after her twin practically on all fours, not wanting to miss out on this.

"…They know the ice cream man isn't going anywhere anytime soon, right?" Lincoln chirped, throwing his popsicle stick in the trash bin beside them.

"Eh… they need the exercise," the sports lover giggled. When the moment passed, she tried to reorient the conversation back to what she was worried about.

"Are you sure you're not depressed?" Lynn requested once again. She understood if their brother was trying to stay quiet and subtle about things. Most people tried to hide their inner woes, under the belief that it was weak to seek out any form of help.

"I'm positive, Lynn. It's really hard to be sad with a family as crazy as ours… Or at least when they're not mobbing me… _but…_ " Lincoln's voice trailed off toward the end. He laid his head back on the bench again.

"But?" Lynn pressed him to continue.

"I feel like I do the same thing every day. The most interesting thing to happen to me this year was when I was moved up to the adults table," Lincoln explained how he really felt. It was just a routine that had been going on for a long time. His self-occupation as peacemaker of the family was the sole thing breaking the ruts. Even then, it was not much.

"You can always join up with us for something… You know you don't need to even ask." Lynn reminded him, dropping her popsicle stick in the trash can too.

"Lynn, I don't enjoy the same thing you all like nearly as much," Lincoln reminded her. She had broken his bones enough times to probably be aware of this by now. He loved his sisters, he always did and always would do his best to make them all happy, he had to make sure they can all get along, but he was not able to have the most fun with the dozens of things they all loved. It was just a case of preference for all of them.

"Point taken… you just need to look for a hobby, that's all. I know you want to take care of us, Lincoln, but you have to take care of yourself first," the sports addict told him, giving him a thankful hug. Lincoln smiled, appreciating it. Lynn was feeling immensely relieved to know he wasn't truly depressed from the look on his face.

" ** _Oof!_** " Lincoln felt a sudden hard tackle. Lana had jumped on them both to join in on the hug. Her red hat was full of various ice cream treats.

"Don't leave us out of hugs!" Lola surprised them. The twins had used their adorable charm to get more ice cream for them all.

"Calm down. There's enough hugs to go around," Lincoln laughed. He knew Lynn was right though. A new hobby would help him, but he had no idea what he could try. Being a jack of all trades type made things a little harder. "Maybe Clyde'll know… Oh well. For now, how about we just enjoy some more ice cream?"

His sisters all eagerly nodded.

"Oh, is that one strawberry? Can I have it?"

"I dunno… It has a chocolate filling. I'd like that."

"But you don't even like strawberry!"

"Alright, you two. Calm down," Lynn sighed and gestured before the twins could get into one of their common, trivial fights.

"Ah… I love you guys," Lincoln brightly smiled, with a raspberry popsicle snug in his mouth.

* * *

The next two hours at the park was spent between the four playing together. Lola now rode on a rocking spring horse, and Lana was being spun on the carousal by Lynn.

" _Haah… jeez…_ They haven't even slowed down for a second," Lincoln panted, feeling exhausted. He did his best to keep up with them, but the heat of the sun was draining him. Chowing down on ice cream failed to keep him cooled down for long. Lincoln soon heard a calm, downbeat ringtone. He recognized the caller instantly. He pulled the cellphone out of his pocket and put it to his ear.

"Hey Clyde, what's up?" Lincoln answered, while taking a seat under a shady tree.

"Hey, dude. Sorry if this is a bad time, but I found something that I had to tell you about," Clyde McBride, his lifelong best friend, sounded eager today.

"What is it?" Lincoln let him continue, watching his family from afar.

"I found this flyer that's requesting high schoolers help for a summer camp."

" _Uhh…_ " Lincoln raised an eyebrow, "We just started high school this year. Is it worth it?"

" **Is it worth it?** Lincoln, you were talking about how you needed a change of pace with me and Ronnie Anne the other day! …Actually, you've been talking about it with us a lot," Clyde exclaimed. He among very few people knew about Lincoln's secret relationship with the school bully, Ronnie Anne Santiago. The trio tended to get along as good friends outside of school.

"So, what? Are you thinking I should become a camp counselor? I don't think they'd really allow it…" Lincoln responded, imagining that the requests for help were more aimed at those in their late teens.

"I still think this is something we should look into. I mean, c'mon! Wouldn't it be a great change? Being able to get out into nature, instead of spending time doing nothing beyond wondering what to do," Clyde argued. Lincoln rubbed his head. Lazing about and pondering on ways to kill time feeling so unenthusiastic had indeed irritated him long enough.

"You got me there… alright, Clyde. I'll go talk to the person running the program," Lincoln agreed. He knew his best friend would not let up otherwise. Clyde sounded happy to hear that.

"Great! I'll text you the address and meet you there," Clyde hung up. Lincoln had a bad feeling he had agreed to something without thinking deeper into it. It was not the first or last time that it would probably happen either.

"Is something going on Lincoln?"

Lincoln saw Lola beside him, who had come over after noticing him tiredly seated under a tree.

"Nah. Clyde just wanted to tell me about something… Hey, Lynn!" Lincoln grabbed his sporty sister's attention. She walked away from the carousal while Lana kept ahold of it to spin as long as she could.

"What is it, Lincoln?" Lynn asked as she rubbed Lola's head. Her brother saw the address shown as a text message. One tap of the button and it was up on the map for him to easily follow.

"I hate to leave early, but… I'm going to go meet up with Clyde about something important. Can you handle watching them?" Lincoln requested.

"Seems easy to do. I owe you a lot anyway, plus they're both in a good mood," Lynn agreed, it sounded simple enough.

"Thanks, Lynn. I appreciate it," he smiled, not entirely sure what she meant when she said she owed him, but did not dwell on it. He simply headed off to leave the park.

"…You've been waiting on him hand and foot a lot lately," Lola told Lynn.

"What? I haven't!" Lynn crossed her arms and furrowed her brow.

"Lynn, the other day you woke up early to make him breakfast," Lana dizzily stumbled a little. Her polar twin helped her stay balanced, not wanting to lose a valued asset to her argument.

"That was so I could apologize for breaking his hand!" Lynn kept her arms crossed, not letting down that defensive aura of hers.

"All you did was dislocate his pinky…" Lola murmured, looking to her twin confusedly. It was a simple football accident that dislocated a digit of Lincoln's hand. They didn't even need to take him to the hospital for that. Lori simply popped it back into place with one hard tug.

"You've done a lot to make things up to him over that. Last time you said it was because you hit him in the face with a football, when the ball only hit his ear," Lana added. They were becoming increasingly suspicious about Lynn's motives for acting weird to their brother for over a year now.

"Do you two want to go home early?" Lynn rhetorically responded.

" _No…_ " the twins said in unison, feeling slightly afraid from seeing her mad.

"Then just get some more ice cream and go to the swing set."

* * *

Lincoln took a short moment to get to his destination, a rather small building that looked to have been remodeled a dozen times over the decades it had been run.

" _ **Lame-o!**_ Over here!"

Lincoln brightly smiled at the two coming down the sidewalk, Clyde and Ronnie Anne.

"Ronnie Anne! What're you doing here?" Lincoln asked, pleasantly surprised, his arms spread out. His school bully was in a simple purple shirt and shorts, her hair done up to a ponytail. She had made a few rules about their relationship, the biggest rule being no affectionate touching without warning.

"Eh. I caught Clyde headin' by Burpin' Burgers. I decided to drop lunch an' come along for the ride," Ronnie Anne explained, gladly hugging him. The two had been dating for a few years now, but had miraculously been able to keep things secret from nearly all.

"Are you two really still shy about kissing in front of others?" Clyde asked when he read the atmosphere.

" **N-no way!** _It's just…_ " Lincoln could not get the words off his tongue. It felt wrong to answer on her behalf a question directed to both of them.

"We've kissed plenty of times in front of others," Ronnie Anne pouted slightly. This seemed to make the third wheel of the group snicker slightly.

"Really? The only time I've seen you guys kiss is when you didn't know I was around," Clyde did not lighten up on the joking, finding their reactions cute. To witness the Santiago girl embarrassed was a nice way of payback to him. She had broken many pairs of his glasses, after all.

"We kissed the other day! We were on a double date with…" Ronnie Anne stopped herself, wanting to vomit at recalling it.

"Chandler and his blind date," Lincoln finished for his girlfriend. It was an awkward experience. Chandler was somewhat a bully in their school, known for hosting fancy parties and only inviting those he could benefit from.

"That… sounds like a pure blackmail-quality miracle," Clyde murmured, "How'd you even convince Chandler to keep quiet?"

"The double date was the only way to get his blind date to agree to go out with him… In trade for him paying an unevenly split bill and us being there, he kept quiet," Ronnie Anne explained, sounding rather cocky with that trade off, even if the date was rather gross and had made it hard to enjoy the food.

"I think Chandler's ego is still recovering…" Lincoln shuddered, feeling glad to have gotten Clyde to stop teasing them both.

" _Right…_ well, how about we just go talk to the person looking for counselors?" The glasses wearing boy insisted. His friends nodded, letting him go inside first. Lincoln was about to follow when he felt Ronnie Anne grab his wrist and yank him back.

"Ronnie Anne, what are yo- _**mhhpfff!**_ " He felt a short passionate kiss to his lips. After a few brief moments, the black haired girl pulled away.

"You taste really sweet today… Sorry Lame-o, I couldn't wait," Ronnie Anne laughed. Lincoln looked spaced out by the sudden act. She just grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him inside, humming a silent tune to herself.

* * *

The trio sat in a small office, all sharing a single couch meant for two instead of three. They were simply waiting, thankful that there was no real line, save two other people who were here before them.

" _This is creepier than a dentist's office…_ " Ronnie Anne mumbled.

"I've been to mom's workplace before. Trust me, the fish tank livens a room up a lot more than you think," Lincoln replied. Rita's occupation as assistant to a dentist resulted in him going to her work several times.

"I don't think that counts as a fish tank, dude…" Clyde commented, the three were staring at the desk in front of them. Resting on the side of it was an oval-shaped tank of water housing three jellyfish, all peacefully floating around.

Ronnie Anne wanted to make a joke at her boyfriend's expense since he had been complaining about everything feeling the same. What better thing to compare him to than a literal trapped sea creature that did nothing but float around and do nothing to kill time. She instead bit her tongue since Lincoln seemed to be generally in a poor mood because of this very rut his life had hit.

"Hey there. Sorry for taking so long," the door opened to a man in a blue shirt that seemed to have a typographic image on the front. The three did not pay much attention to it.

"Where've you been?" Ronnie Anne asked. The man with spiky blonde hair took a seat behind his desk.

"Sorry, my assistant needed help with her computer again…" the man's fake Australian accent sounded, "Y'know what they say."

"No, we don't know what they say…" Lincoln shook his head, not getting the joke. His house used that phrasing a lot, so much that it seemed made for them.

"Well moving on then…" the man coughed, "I'm Butch North and I take it you three are here for the counselor positions?"

"Well, I am at least. I'm Lincoln Loud," Lincoln smiled.

"I'm Clyde McBride. I want to sign up with my bro here," Clyde nodded.

"I want to sign up too. I'm Ronnie Anne Santiago," she added.

"Ronnie Anne?! I thought you just were coming for moral support," Lincoln commented, confused and rather caught off guard by his girlfriend's decision.

"You think I'm going to let you leave me for eight weeks straight?" Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow. Her boyfriend understood her point, that much was very true. Clyde remained silent, not wanting to be involved in their miniature fight.

"Well it's nice to see some actual energetic youth, but it isn't as simple as signing a piece of paper… What happens is we give you a week to study up for a set of tests, they're made to prove if you can or can't handle these types of responsibilities," Butch explained to them. The small group of teenagers assumed that it was how they found people right for the job, it made sense to them.

"Can we ask what kind of summer camp this is?" Lincoln partially stuck up his left hand.

"Our camp is out to help young people in need who are sent there… whether by their own desire, their parents orders or a judge giving them a last chance," the young man explained. That did nothing but make them worry more.

"A boot camp? Sorry, but… I actually have empathy for other human beings," Ronnie Anne scoffed, ready to just stand up and leave right now. She believed boot camps to turn minor offenders into hardened criminals like a regular prison. For a bully, even she had standards.

" _ **Hahaha!**_ Oh god, no! I went to one when I was younger… of course I'll never condone another person going through that," the man looked at his jellyfish, "Our camps program is to help those that genuinely need it, and we need counselors who can actually help the young… We have three adult counselors, but the youth understand the youth, you know?"

"Makes sense," Clyde nodded, so far understanding.

"You said you were in a boot camp before? What happened…? If I can ask," Lincoln requested. This man's passion behind his work made him curious to know why.

Butch sighed, leaning back in his chair. He sounded like a man who had been through living nightmares a few times himself. Even if it made him a better person in the end, the memories were still in too deep to forget.

"I got caught shoplifting so they decided to send me to the Royal Academy Boot Camp… that place shut down about eight years ago, but when everyone was enjoying one of the rarer days to actually take it easy, but a bear got through the fence that was meant to keep us from escaping."

"Huh…" Lincoln let him continue.

"I figured that camp was something designed to punish someone and throw them away if their parents were sick of them, or some other family member. I was planning to escape when I noticed that bear break through. I was saved though…" Butch looked up to the ceiling, "My instructor and counselor was the most brutal man alive… and let me tell you all, I'd have been bear chow if it wasn't for him."

"Yikes…" Ronnie Anne stated. The three teenagers did not need to ask what happened to this boot camp instructor. Judging by his tone, it obviously was not good.

"So I decided to create my own camp years later to give troubled kids a real last chance, instead of giving up on them and hoping someone else can clean up the work," his words actually rung out to Lincoln. He liked the sound behind it. All he did was help his family most of the time. He was starting to believe he was actually perfect for this role.

"We'll see you next week for the test," Lincoln smiled. Butch looked happy to hear that.

"I like that look in your eyes… Here's what you need to study for. If you can do all this well, you'll be green lit and approved for the position," the man handed the three of them some sheets of paper for specific tasks to go over, "Oh, and on the other side is a list of what to expect if you accept being a counselor."

"Okay. Thanks!" Lincoln nodded. The three said their goodbyes before leaving the office.

* * *

"Wow, you look excited for once, Lincoln. I haven't seen you look this eager in a month," Clyde commented to his brotherly best friend as they all made their way back out onto the blazing hot streets.

"I've been able to help my family through a million and a half problems. If I can actually help someone in a long term way, it'd be great!" Lincoln exclaimed, hugging them both with each arm.

"There's the Lincoln we know and love," Ronnie Anne smirked to the bucktoothed boy.

"I can get a lot of books from Lisa about these topics, too," Lincoln added, looking at the list he had more than enough opportunity to study.

"Say, what's this camp called again?" Clyde suddenly brought up the question. They had forgotten to bring that up during that meeting.

"Uhh… Camp Leaf Crown Lake… _Wait…_ ** Leaf Crown Lake?**" Ronnie Anne's voice and train of thought trailed off toward the end. That name sounded familiar and made her feel uncomfortable. They knew it was outside of Royal Woods.

"That's a weird name, but I guess it could be weirder," Lincoln shrugged it off, making his mental checklist. Nobody really paid her comment much mind, but clearly it was distracting her.

"Dude, do you even know what you're going to say to your family?" Clyde asked him. Ronnie Anne had barely anything to worry about, since Bobby coddled her so much that she hated him for it, and Clyde's parents would be more than happy to let their son try to go out of his way to help others.

" _…I have no idea,_ " Lincoln coughed, the thought suddenly sparking off in his mind. He forgot in his excitement that he was about to be away from his family for this.

"So you're screwed?" Ronnie Anne asked, but her boyfriend shook his head.

"I'll just get mom and dad to agree first. That's really all that matters. I can handle the rest easier after that," Lincoln spoke the best immediate plan he had in mind. He wouldn't need all ten of his sisters' consent to sign up to be a camp counselor. They could all do with a break from each other he presumed.

"I mean it's not like they can't survive one day without me… _Right?_ "

"This is for a couple of months, Lame-o…"

" _ **Okay.**_ _**This is going to be harder than I thought.**_ "


	2. Mistake?

**_Authors Note: Hey all, I just wanted to give you a heads up that the next chapter might come a bit late... Mainly because I'm sort've in the way of Hurricane Irma, so hope for the best but prepare for the worst type of deal. Just wanted to let you know. This is Fallen pens, dropping out._**

* * *

Lincoln had arrived to his home later in the evening, still pretty early for dinner. He stepped inside and closed the front door behind himself.

"Hey, Lincy!" Leni was the first to greet their only brother, "Welcome home."

"Hey, Leni. How has your day been?" Lincoln greeted his low IQ sister. Despite being the second oldest and a lover of fashion, Leni was arguably dumber than even their baby sister.

"It's been boring. I made Lily a new shirt though!" the long blonde haired girl excitedly hummed. She seemed more happy to see her brother with a smile on his bucktoothed face again. Lately it had felt like he had been faking his happiness.

"You did? Where is she?" Lincoln asked, curious to see their littlest sister's newest and most likely temporary fashionable piece of clothing, as the fashion designer loved to call them.

"She's watching TV. I'm actually really proud of how it turned out," Leni pointed a finger to the nearby couch. After a few steps, he felt his heart melt at the sight of Lily, the youngest of the Loud family, lying on the sofa half asleep. She was in a shirt that had a hood on it to block out the sun partially. It made her look like a baby bear.

" _Wincown…?_ " Lily began to immediately waken up rubbing her eyes, her head full of blonde hair popping up from the pillow. She wasted no time in hugging his waist. Lincoln chuckled, soothing her head finding it cute.

"Yeah, Lily. I'm home," Lincoln gave her a late greeting. She had grown quite a bit, but still had some trouble learning to speak. Despite her pediatrician's reassurances, it still worried their parents.

"Gosh, Lily. You always act like he's never going to come back," Leni giggled. A minor strike of guilt twanged in his heart. He knew that he wanted to do something that would take him away from home for a couple of months. It may not be forever, but he doubted to a toddler that it made much difference, especially when Lily was so clingy and attached to him.

"If I had the energy, I'd be screaming that I was being attacked by a bear," Lincoln jokingly said. Lily giggled, feeling him tickle her neck. Leni could not resist and had to take pictures with her cellphone of the cute scene.

"Hey Leni. Do you know where Mom and Dad are?" Lincoln asked. Today was supposed a day off for their parents, but those two tended to take any excuse they could to go on a date. Unfortunately he needed them home today more than he usually did.

"They're in their room. They said they wanted to organize their closet," Leni answered. Every couple of seasons the Loud parents did the organization. Their closet could get out of hand if they ignored it for too long, they rarely had any idea how it happened either.

"Great! I'm going to go talk to them… sorry, Lily, but we can play later," Lincoln put his baby sister down. Lily nodded, understanding. He assumed that Lynn, Lola and Lana were not home yet, but he knew that would be simply a matter of time. He headed off to get upstairs.

* * *

"So far it's looking pretty good, honey," Lynn Sr, the Loud father, stood back up after checking on everything in the closet to see where they needed to start.

"I guess we haven't been exactly getting much use out of anything in there… It might be time to start thinking of donating things to charity again," the Loud mother, Rita, suggested. Her husband agreed with that thought. The balding man was pondering to himself now how they kept winding up with so much stuff in such short time spans.

"Mom? Dad?" Lincoln poked his head in from the open doorway.

"Hey there, champ. How were things at the park?" Lynn Sr greeted their only son. They had requested him to take the twins to the park since they were really busy cleaning up. Thankfully they had finished the cleaning by now, mostly.

"Fine. I left Lola and Lana with Lynn, because I had to do something important... I need to talk to you about that really important thing, too," Lincoln explained. His parents grew looks of concern. Though they swore they could sense all of the family in the home trying to eavesdrop already at the mere word important being used.

"One second, sweetheart," Rita went over and closed their bedroom door before locking it. She then reached up and yanked down a dark black cover that then covered the door with a sound proofing tarp. Lisa had given everyone one of each for their personal rooms whenever they needed privacy.

"Alright, Lincoln. Now you can talk," Rita took a seat on the end of her bed, letting their son come sit beside her. He looked nervous, unsure where to begin.

"Relax, son," Lynn Sr insisted, "Nobody's gonna overhear us. We asked Lisa to make that soundproof stuff for a reason."

" _Well…_ I have no idea where to start… basically It's about summer camp," Lincoln told his parents. The mention of summer camp seemed to awaken memories in both of his parents' minds. His mother looked rather happy with what she recalled, whilst his father looked uncertain from simply looking back on things of their youth.

"I used to go to summer camp every second year with my friends… _Ahh_ , those were the best times… I was able to get stronger… healthier… and whenever a big problem in my life came along, I would always be able to handle it better after I spent time at summer camp," Rita exclaimed with a warm smile. Their son knew most of their mother's friends had moved away when they started becoming adults. The blonde mother grew rather depressed because of that, even if they kept in contact and occasionally visited.

"I only went to summer camp twice. One time as a camper, a second time as a counselor. Both experiences were equally terrible. Couldn't go a day without some sort of cut or bruise getting on me and everyone was nothing short of horrible," Lynn Sr declared, showing no hesitation when expressing his thought on summer camps, based off just his experience alone.

" _Wow…_ I'm sorry about that, dad," Lincoln could only say, not exactly sure where his parents stood on the thought of him going to summer camp. All he heard from that were their memories.

"Oh, uh… sorry sweetie. Mommy gets more lost in her old days. The older she gets, the more she rambles about her past," Rita mused. The whole family knew she was having a good few existential crises's occasionally.

"So, son… you want to spend part of your summer at camp?" the Loud father guessed as he held his chin, not entirely sure on this.

" _Sort of…_ There's a program going on to help younger kids who are on their last chance in lives, or really need help, I want to try an sign up to be one of the junior counselors," Lincoln explained to the best of his understanding. He presented the paper, showing all he needed to research and read in preparation for the test in a week.

"Their last chances?" Lynn Sr sounded confused, "A troubled youth camp?"

"Their last chances to change and stop whatever troubles got them sent to the camp before… before the real world loses the last of its patience with them, or before they can't really be helped anymore." Lincoln tried to word it as politely as he could. A few delinquents involved were the least of his worries. He knew what to expect with these types of people, at least. It was the ones he did not know anything about that worried him.

"Well, I think that it's very sweet that you want to help people," Rita smiled, rubbing his head. She was aware that she should probably be more worried, but she knew their house could be more dangerous at times.

"I'm proud of your determination son, but you really need to think of yourself first sometimes," Lynn Sr stated the same thing Lynn Jr had told him earlier.

"What's there to think about with me? I'll take care of myself when I earn it," Lincoln responded, brushing past the statement. His parents did not know how to respond to such words. It was a little heart wrenching to hear him talk so poorly and care so little about himself.

" _Son…_ " the middle aged man was at a loss for words on the matter. Things fell silent for a few minutes, until the Loud mother broke the ice.

"I think you should do it, Lincoln," Rita declared with a warm smile.

"Honey, I don't think this is a good idea," her husband intercepted the topic.

"Why not, dad?" Lincoln requested.

His father handed over the paper he had given them and showed the other side.

"Son, this camp is going to cut you off from most of the world. You have to handle rationing food to last each week. You can't have phone calls more than once a week either, unless it's an emergency. And when you sign up, whatever happens to any of those kids, the blame is on you and all the other counselors."

"I know, dad. I read all that too… I also have to take an important test to prove I can be a good counselor," Lincoln nodded. He had not turned a blind eye to any of this, but he still didn't have second thoughts about doing this. Rita already knew about that though. She had seen the paper when their son gave it to them.

"And what if these kids treat you badly?" Lynn Sr asked, "Do you really think you can take care of someone else's mistake?"

"As far as I care, I'm a mistake too… I feel like like that a lot, really." Lincoln flatly said with his gaze to the floor. Rita stood up and took her husband's hand.

" **Lincoln** , we **NEVER** want to hear you say that! Everyone in this house loves you with all of their hearts, just like how you care for them with that giant heart of yours," Rita slightly berated their son, but she still spoke in a concerned motherly tone. "Me and your father need to speak with each other, Lincoln… So let me tell you a secret. Your mommy has a little hidden chocolate stash in the back of the freezer. Go help yourself."

"…thanks, mom," Lincoln nodded, he got off the bed and immediately took leave.

"We'll come get you once we're done talking!" Lynn Sr told their son as he left the room and closed the door behind him to let his parents continue their private conversation. Lincoln went to get himself some chocolate, knowing his parents were trying to simply cheer him up. He could hear the many siblings try and fail at eavesdropping. While scattering to hide, he could see most of them just getting into their rooms, but he shrugged it off.

 _"Man, I'm getting a lot of chocolate today…"_ Lincoln murmured. He knew his sisters would mob him or their parents later to ask what was going on, he would handle that when it inevitably did happen.

"Do you think he'd want to go talk to a therapist…?" Lynn Sr asked his wife once it was just them in the room. This was not the first time they offered therapy to their son, mainly out of worry of how being the only boy in a family of girls mentally affected him. They knew how Lincoln sometimes felt exiled from his own family, but he turned down the last offer of therapy.

"Oh yeah, honey. Real smart idea. Let's _**PAY**_ someone to listen to our son when he's depressed. That'll really cheer him up… Come on, Lynn, you know that's a terrible idea. We'd be paying a person to just sit there and nod his head for an hour until times up," Rita sarcastically retorted. Her times with therapists were always a waste of time to her, they all were the same as far as she cared.

"I'm guessing you're still upset about that joke trip to the marriage counselor?" Lynn Sr's last April Fools prank did not go well with his wife, but it did earn him a good place on the couch with the cat for a week straight.

"Very upset. You took me to talk about our marriage with a guy who isn't even married…" the Loud mother tried to brush past that horrid memory. Their marriage was healthy as far as they cared. The more problems they went combing for, the more that would appear obviously.

"I say we should let Lincoln go to summer camp." She repeated.

"Honey. He's barely fourteen," Lynn Sr replied non-hesitantly, "I don't see Lincoln as the type to survive out in nature, while taking care of so many others on his own for months!"

"He's been taking care of all of us for years now Lynn… We owe him to let him do what he wants. We've been terrible parents our fair share of times."

"Honey, don't be ridiculous," her husband insisted, doubtful, but more so upset to hear his wife think that poorly of herself. "We haven't been bad parents. I mean, why would that be true?"

"He's a lone boy in a family of girls. I swear, our son thinks we're sexist half the time or that him being born as a boy is the reason for all of our problems. He's blaming everything on himself," Rita stated. it was a constant worry that made them try to let their kids sort out any conflict among each other themselves, out of fear that they would make things worse. They had learnt that when Leni and Lori were young, sadly the mob mentality really ruined those hopes usually.

"When was the last time we even spent quality time with Lincoln even?"

"We took him mini golfing last week, sweetheart," Lynn Sr tried to make his wife relax, it was clear she was upset.

"We didn't take him mini golfing, Lynn. We took everyone mini golfing…" Rita let out a frustrated sigh. Now she was worried about what could be wrong with Lincoln to be making him think so lowly of himself. It made her miss when her only son was a baby and the most they had to worry about was handling tooth pain.

"Please, can we focus?" Lynn Sr insisted, still basing his worries and beliefs off of his horrid experiences, "These aren't just some classmates of his who need help. These are kids who couldn't get through their problems no matter who helped them! Parents, professionals, friends… What if somebody hurts him badly?"

"You're still upset because that one boy broke your leg with his prank?" Rita questioned, he had told her that story a hundred times at least. Her husband took a moment to respond but nodded.

"Yeah… What's worse is that I can't even remember his name. I just knew he was Latin American," the balding man muttered, having given up trying to solve that puzzle decades ago.

"Honey, this could be just what Lincoln needs. There's nothing he can do here. He needs to know he _**CAN**_ be independent and know we won't be constantly watching over him," Rita continued with her argument. It seemed to make a strong good point with her husband. Even if the Loud parents weren't the two watching over him, their many family members certainly did. "He's blaming every little thing on himself, because he keeps feeling like he needs to be involved with everything the girls do."

"I'm still against this honey… I'm sorry, but nothing you can say will change my mind," Lynn Sr stood firm that he did not want to risk his son's safety or health. His wife seemed to pause to think. She was fighting for their only son here to do what he desired, it was the first thing to make him truly happy in a long time clearly.

" _That test…_ " Rita felt a light bulb go off, "Lynn, why don't we let the results of that test decide?"

Her suggestion seemed to strike her husband's attention pretty well.

"Oh right… That really tough test to prove he can be a good counselor…" Lynn Sr murmured. They could at least let Lincoln tackle the test. He knew his wife was planning on adding the offer that if he passed, he could go, and if he failed, there was no second chance. He knew those tests for special camps were designed to be extremely hard, one bad counselor could ruin the whole thing. "Alright, Rita. We'll let our son prove whether or not he can do this."

Relieved, his wife hugged him immediately and breathed a sigh of relaxation. "Oh, you're sometimes so stubborn, but that just makes talking with you all the better."

"Heh… and they said debate team was a waste of time."

"Honestly, maybe this summer camp thing would be a good idea for some of the younger kids too?"

"Honey, one thing at a time please…"

"But Lynn, imagine a few weeks with nowhere near as much to handle, the house being quieter… it'd do them wonders too to get some fresh air. Hehe!"

Her husband gulped understanding what she meant. " _Gosh, I forgot how persuasive you can be…_ "

* * *

Downstairs, Lincoln was seated along at the adults table in the kitchen, a small container in front of him that had a few pieces of animal shaped chocolates.

"Is that chocolate?" he heard from nowhere. One look to his left showed his younger gothic sister, Lucy, in her usual black attire.

"Yup," Lincoln simply said, not even startled by her sudden appearance. The gothic tended to sneak up and startle anybody ever since she first learned how to crawl, some unintentional habit of hers apparently.

"Are you okay?" Lucy read his current emotions easily. Not that he tried too hard to hide them.

"I'm fine… just… _thinking,_ y'know?" Lincoln did not know what else to say. He took out a chocolate bat and offered it to his favorite little vampire. The gothic girl took it with a smile on her face and began to eat it.

"Thinking about what?" Lucy did not lighten up, but she certainly had no shame of talking with her mouth full.

"I'll explain later… I'd rather wait until everyone's home," Lincoln shrugged. He knew their oldest sister Lori was on a date, and that Lynn, Lola and Lana were still at the park.

"Wis it bwad?" they both heard another lighter cute voice speak up. They looked down and saw Lily under the table. The tot dressed like a baby bear popped up and climbed into their brother's lap, taking the chocolate bear from his hand and beginning to nibble on it.

"Heh… you're too adorable, Lily… But no, it's nothing bad, but it'll still take a lot of work," Lincoln answered, letting the two enjoy the secret chocolate stash with him since there was not much left. He figured there was no harm in finishing off the box of sweets.

"Wouldn't it be better to tell us now? So you can have some breathing room when you tell the others later," Lucy replied. He raised his eyebrows. It actually made sense. His ten sisters would cause less trouble together from the shock of things, if the less of them there were around to hear the news at different times.

"I'll tell Lily last, _because…_ well, she won't take it that well," Lincoln whispered to Lucy while their baby sister was distracted by the last of the chocolate. Hearing those words did nothing but make the gothic worry more. Lincoln put their baby sister in his seat.

"Take it easy. It's nothing bad," Lincoln assured before heading off to begin telling everyone his plans, hoping the idea of telling them separately would be far better than telling one giant mob.

* * *

"Are you sure this is safe, Lisa?" Leni was in the younger kids' room, sitting on a small chair with a weird wire covered helmet on her head, the many wires were hooked up to a laptop.

"There is absolutely no risk with the helmet… _at least when used like this…_ " Lisa's voice trailed off toward the end of that sentence.

"What was that?"

" _ **Erm…**_ I said your hair is nice," Lisa lied, adjusting her lab coat, it was three times bigger than her, and was dragging on the floor. But she did not care, it was a prize to her practically now since a fellow researcher gave her it as a gift.

" _Aw…_ thanks, Lisa!" Leni smiled. The super genius was relieved to have been able to get away that easily. She was just monitoring her second oldest sister's brainwaves.

"Nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever…" Lisa huffed. Solving the mystery behind Leni's low IQ was one of her few obsessions in life, next to science and inventing hazardous experiments, though any testing on her family had to be done secretly or else their parents would be upset.

"Hey, Lisa. Hey, Leni. _Uh…_ are you two busy?" Lincoln entered the younger kids' room. Barely two steps in and he felt worried at what he had walked in on.

"I don't think so…?" Leni scratched her helmet clad head.

"We were wrapping up some minor neural monitoring, that's all," Lisa took the helmet off of Leni's head and chucked it aside, frustrated with the lack of success.

"Okay then… I needed to talk to you two," Lincoln went over and took a seat on one of the smaller chairs.

"What's wrong Lincy?" Leni could tell he was nervous.

"Honestly, this is something I need to tell you all, but… y'know, one sister at a time," he replied. The child prodigy understood with a nod. She had to do this several times on her own whenever an invention went wrong.

"Does it involve what you talked about with our biological parents?" Lisa asked.

"It does, and I'm gonna get straight to the point. I want to go to a summer camp to help the troubled youth," Lincoln came out and put things upfront for the two sisters to hear. They so far seemed to not be too surprised.

"That seems like not so much, really it is a rather weak reason to request complete privacy and to nullify all eavesdropping on your conversation," Lisa commented, aware how rude it sounded. Her straight face seemed to waver further or easier as she grew up.

"You wanna spend some time at a camp? That sounds like fun! But what do you mean troubled youth?" Leni inquired. Their brother was unsure about how far he should stretch the truth here. He decided to go straight forward.

"You know, kids that need help… Whether they want it or not, like a last chance camp," Lincoln tried to reword it for his low IQ sister to understand. "Actually, I'm telling you guys this because I need to borrow some of your books, Lisa, to study for a test that's coming next week, so I can prove that I can handle it."

Lincoln then handed the small list on paper to Lisa.

"Well that's sweet that you want to help people," Leni gave their brother a tight hug, making his back crack.

" _Ouugh…_ " the teenage boy coughed, " _I'm gonna feel that later…_ T-thanks, Leni."

"I'll gladly donate these books to you for as long as you need… I've certainly read them far more than humanly necessary," the child prodigy adjusted her glasses. The list was nothing to her vast collection of knowledge. She went off to gather them up for him.

"It is sad that you'd be gone for a week… But camp is a fun thing!" Leni though looked unsure if she should be fond of her summer camp memories or afraid of them, "I went once when I was little, but mosquitoes ate me alive."

" _Uh… Leni…_ " he hesitated while his second youngest sister was getting the step ladder for her bookshelf.

"Hm? What is it Lincy?" The fashion designer motioned him to continue. He acted like a living mannequin for her often, so she was more than happy to listen to him when he needed her to.

"I'll be gone for eight weeks… Not just one," silence fell when the claim was out. Lisa even wound up dropping her books in surprise.

" _ **Wh-what do you mean eight weeks?**_ I've never heard of someone camping for that long…!" Leni murmured, trying to control herself but the surprise really got to her.

"He means two and a half months, if you need a simplified explanation," Lisa commented, bringing the books over after picking them up. She put them in their brother's lap.

"I'm sorry. I know it sounds bad, but these are people I might be able to genuinely help, even if it means being away from home for nearly three months," Lincoln apologized. Even if she hid it, the child prodigy was shaken by the news. Their home without their only brother was a dreadful thought, in any scenario.

"You want to what?" The voice of Luna, the rock-loving sister who practically raised the younger half of the family, had walked in when hearing the commotion, she took Lincoln's attention immediately.

 _"Well so much for that plan…"_ Lincoln thought with an annoyed huff.

"He-hey, Luna. Sorry you had to hear it this way. I was trying to go about telling everyone slowly…" Lincoln claimed, unable to tell if the Mick Swagger fan was upset or happy with what he wanted to do.

" _Oh Luna, he wants to go to a summer camp to help others…_ " Leni meekly informed her younger sister, feeling saddened by the news still, even if she understood.

"Things to boring around here for you, little bro?" Luna questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Actually…" Lincoln sighed, "I'm in a rut and need a change of pace for once in my life. I'm sure I'd just get in the way of you guys if I stayed here, I imagine a lot of you'd be happy with me being out of the way a while."

" **Who told you that?!** " Luna demanded, angry that he would even talk about himself in such a bad way. She believed someone in their family had told him this. If so, she was ready to hunt them down and make them apologize the second any plausible names came up.

"Luna, you must calm down. Getting worked up will do no good," Lisa implored the guitarist. Otherwise she had plenty of gadgets lying around to force a relaxed state of mind onto her older sister if need be.

" ** _How can I calm down?!_** My brothers talking about himself like he's a dog! Whoever got him thinking like this is probably why he wants to get away from us all," Luna retorted. Leni was becoming afraid. It made sense, but she did not believe anyone in their family would be that cruel intentionally.

" **Luna!** " Lincoln shouted, getting the room to calm down. He kept the books tucked under his arm. "Luna. I'm doing this because I want to. Nothing else made me decide on this. The only person that's made me think this way, is myself. You don't have to worry about me. I'd say I'm going to go tell everyone else now, but… I know you're going to call for an emergency family meeting behind my back to talk about it.

" _Lincoln…_ " Luna tried to speak up, but her brother turned around facing his back to them.

"Well, I'm going to go start studying. I can't get anywhere if I can't pass the test," Lincoln went off to his own room to focus on nothing but studying. It was like a summer school task for him, but he hoped to be able to manage it simply.

" _What's going on with him…?_ " Luna held her head, feeling terrible that she could do nothing to make him feel better. She had not seen her brother that demoralized in years, at least in any blatant sense.

"Frankly, it's probably all our faults that he views himself in such poor light," Lisa mused as she went to begin cleaning up her equipment.

"What do you mean, Lisa?" Leni turned to her.

"What? You think we're the reason he's acting like everyone hates him?" Luna asked. Both looked to her, their faces giving the obvious answer.

"We certainly don't hesitate to request his aid, and he certainly has given up on comic books and video games," Lisa turned her back to them when she felt a single tear escape her eyes, from recalling every last gadget that went wrong when testing it on him. She did not want them to see her like this.

"I thought I hadn't seen him in his underwear in a long time…" Leni nodded in agreement, trying to think back.

"That's stupid, Lisa," Luna argued, "He knows he can just say no and we'd be fine with it."

"No, we wouldn't," Lisa rested her glasses by her laptop, "We'd keep pushing him until we got our way… I say let him go and hope that he can forgive us when he returns. Otherwise drop the topic."

"Screw that. I'm calling a family meeting," Luna left, not wanting to let Lincoln remained depressed. He was like a son to her with how big of a hand she had in raising him.

"Should we stop her?" Leni asked. Lisa didn't answer. The fashion designer hated the silence. Whenever Lisa was upset, her mind would begin shutting others out and focus on nothing but work until her body wore out.

Leni decided to go with Luna's plan on the family meeting that Lincoln predicted, going to help round up everyone.

 _"Oh Lincy, please let this just be you going through a phase..."_


	3. Plight

**Authors Note: I had to do this because my power most likely will go out tonight, so apologies if I am unresponsive to reviews/pms. While I'm here I should also inform you that as stated in the first chapter, there will be no incest in this story, but hints at it will linger for several reasons meant for later in the story. Sorry again, this is Fallen pens, dropping out.**

* * *

"This is a waste of time," Lori spoke, sitting on her bed. All of the sisters, except for Lily who was playing downstairs, were in her and Leni's bedroom for this emergency meeting. They still were missing Lynn and the twins, but Luna had insisted to quit wasting time.

" _ **Lori!** _Don't you get what's going on?!" Luna demanded. Lori brushed her short blonde hair out of her face, she was more focused on her phone.

"You told me the first time. And I can't really care more, even if you tell me the fifth time. We're having a meeting about letting our brother go to camp. You really need to lighten up the mother-hen deal," Lori responded. All of the older sisters felt parental to their brother, he had been a shimmering star in their life since he was first born. Lori however knew when to quit smothering him with attention. She instead could smother her boyfriend when she felt she had to get her extra affection out of herself.

"Lori has a point. We can't keep _'babying'_ our baby brother," Luan received a good few groans for that pun. She was always able to relax, but her comedy did not seem welcomed at the moment.

"It's not about camp. It's about why he wants to go to camp!" Luna countered, "He's been talking about himself like everybody hates him."

"I certainly don't blame him for wanting to be away from us all… Permit him to have some breathing room. We can't intrude our way into his business any longer without repercussions," Lisa explained, doubting this was a good idea. She would have left this meeting immediately, but everyone was worried about how down the genius felt as well. Leni had dragged her in here after everyone else was rounded up.

"They're both right… _Ohh,_ I wish this argument would end now," Leni said, looking like her mind was about to give way and collapse in on itself.

"Leni, you saw this too right? What do you think?" Lucy requested their second oldest sibling to try and alleviating things with her opinion. The room was far too tense for all of them. Some were worried, others were not thinking much of it and others were indifferent and unable to decide, which basically made them worried for everybody.

"What _**I**_ think?" the fashion designer gasped. Rarely did anybody ask her for her actual opinion directly. It made her so eager that her sunglasses almost fell off her head. Luna caught them and put them right back.

" _Uh… Well…_ " the long blonde haired girl now seemed hesitant and nervous, even worse when all eyes on her, but she forced herself to continue. It was to help her brother after all.

"I think we have no right to make Lincoln do anything… We've all been terrible, and we barely do anything to repay him or to say we're sorry… the least we can do is support what he wants to do," Leni did her best to word things in a way that made sense. She could begin listing things off, but she already felt like just hiding under her bed sheets until things calmed down.

"Oh, quit being overdramatic," Lori told her slightly younger sister.

"You're one to talk! All you do is shout at him…" Leni crossed her arms. The eldest Loud did not know how to reply. She was not even able to recall the last time she spent a real family moment with their brother.

"So that's it?" Luna growled, "Nobody agrees with me? What if he just comes back from camp in a worse state than he was when he left?!"

"They're kinda right. You sound crazier than someone trying to count ping pong balls in a hot tub," Luan claimed, trying to stay light hearted with her jokes, but was aware that it was agitating others instead, but that never stopped her before.

"That… doesn't even make sense…" Lucy held her head. Imagining it alone gave her a migraine.

"If you're genuinely concerned for him and not trying to benefit yourself in some way, there is another option," Lisa began.

"Excuse me?" Luna looked at the genius, offended.

"Sorry, I'm very emotional right now…" Lisa adjusted her glasses and presented the document that Lincoln had left with her when requesting some of her books. "According to this document's list, they aren't able to start this camp comfortably without six junior counselors and five adult counsellors. Evidently, there are still positions open for both but only two are available for the adults and all five are available for the juniors."

" _ **Oh…!**_ So maybe one of us can become an adult counselor and go with him?" Luan gasped, sounding excited. If Lincoln wanted to go, they could at least help him with his desires and be there if he needed it.

"At least we won't have to worry about blind numbers," Lori stated her relief on this. The fixed number of counsellors worked for anyone participating.

"This shouldn't be too hard," Leni smiled. Their prodigious sister had to give them something to silence them, before they would request the same media that Lincoln had taken.

"Unfortunately, my only books that could be used to study for these topics are in our brother's care, and I doubt he wants to know we're going this far out of our way for what could be nothing," Lisa informed them all, "We'd better find some other means of researching the topics that'll most likely appear on the test."

"This'll be a piece of cake!" Luna grinned, eager to begin studying. She could just go online and handle things there, easier than ever without the need of books.

"So this meeting's over?" Lori half-heartedly asked, seeming a bit down now after the accusations aimed toward her.

"But what about Lynn, Lola and Lana?" Lucy asked.

"I think Lynn would have to try and be a junior counsellor," Luan suggested, "She's only two and a half years older than Lincoln."

"I'm talking about telling them what Lincoln's doing. This is news that everyone needs to know," Lucy explained. Everyone looked between one another, all unsure.

"I'll handle that. You all can go start studying," Lori volunteered, wanting to get through things already.

"You aren't going to try, Lori?" Leni asked, disappointed.

"What's the point? I actually think Lincoln can take care of himself just fine," Lori smiled, as if having a superiority complex from the confidence she had in their only brother.

"He'll be gone for nearly three months! I can't let him be alone that long, who knows what kind of dangerous nature is around that camp," Luna huffed, irritated by their older sister's lack of worry.

" _Yeah?_ It'll be a shame if your personal guitar cleaner and roadie was gone, right?" Lori's smirk grew wider. A metaphorical low blow to Luna's being. Luna felt a nerve pop, she wanted to immediately chase down and assault the phone addict, but Leni and Luan stopped her.

"Come on! No need to get _'amped'_ up about this!"

"Luan's right!" Leni assured, "It's just Lori being Lori!"

" **I DON'T CARE!** " Luna shouted, trying to break out of their grip.

"…well, if it's gonna be like this, I'm not helping any of them study…" Lisa thought to herself, just leaving the oldest sisters room and going off to handle her own task. "They can handle dealing with things in their own catastrophically bad matter."

* * *

While things seemed to calm down a little in the house, the high tension subtly remained. It did nothing but confuse Lynn and the twins when they arrived home. Barely anybody would give them the time of day since the older half of the family, except for Lori, were all studying, and the younger half were trying to make sure no chaos broke loose.

"Did another fight happen while we were gone?" Lynn questioned, seeing Lori on the couch, laid back and texting on her phone. Lily was beside her, watching a weird superhero show called Synchroute.

"Yeah, but not physically," Lori said, not paying much attention before her phone got pushed out of her face by Lola. The oldest Loud sister rolled her eyes before putting her cellphone away. She was clearly not going to get a moment's reprise.

"What's going on?" Lana gave her best puppy dog eyes expression, usually it had a strong effect on most of their family.

"Lincoln wants to become a junior counselor at this camp… Something Crown Lake? I can't remember the name," the short blonde haired girl stayed laid back on the couch, not taking this as seriously as most of their family was.

"So what? We spent a lot of our vacations at a camp," Lynn asked, confused. Those camping vacations were terrible to a lot of them, but they still went on them most of the time nonetheless.

"Oh, because he'd be away for nearly three months."

" _ **THREE MONTHS?!**_ " The three screamed in unison, startling Lori into falling over the armrest of the couch. She groaned as she got back up. Lily was laughing, finding the conversation hilarious from the surprised shouting and unintentional slapstick.

"Please, stop doing that," Lori coughed, rubbing her neck sorely. Being scared by the surprised shouts of her younger sisters always caught her off guard.

"Where'd they go?" The oldest blonde Loud quirked an eyebrow. In that short time they all had vanished.

"Wupstwairs," Lily answered, turning her attention from the television to their oldest sister. But she looked very upset after registering some of the words of the conversation. " _Wincown's weaving…?_ "

Lori held her head, going over and picking up her littlest sister.

"I don't know _IF_ he's leaving or not, Lily, but he wants to go help other people… people who need help really badly," Lori tried to explain, but instead of an understanding nod, the toddler dressed like a cub clung onto her oldest sister tightly, trying to resist crying.

 _"Damn it, Lincoln…"_ Lori murmured, rubbing Lily's back trying to console her.

* * *

Upstairs, Lincoln lay on his bed, reading one of the many books he had stacked beside him. The first book he was invested into covered information about wildlife, and the types of mushrooms or wild berries that grew in Royal Woods, Michigan.

 _"Guess they expect us to be as reliable as the adults… I don't blame them,"_ Lincoln thought to himself. He had seen enough news reports about negligent counselors causing a child to suffer immense harm; simply because they did not care for the position they had been assigned. It made him more determined to do well on this test.

"Huh?" He heard multiple hands rapidly knocking on his room's door. It was either he had locked the door or the entire sibling crowd would barge in. Lincoln hopped out of bed, unlocking the door. In seconds, it flew open and he was tackled to the ground by the twins and sports lover themselves. " ** _Gack!_** "

"Lincoln! Please don't leave us!"

"It'll be too weird around here without you for nearly three months!"

"I'm sorry if me hurting you is why you want to get away from us all! I promise to not wrestle you anymore!"

" _I can't breathe…_ " their brother coughed, his back on the floor. He was not even paying attention to what they were saying. He was soullessly staring into the ceiling.

* * *

After a few minutes of getting out of the tangled dog pile, the middle Loud child had his three sisters sitting on his bed with him in front of them. He was leaned against his dresser, reading the book as he waited for one of them to break the silence.

" _Are…Are you mad at us?_ " Lana worriedly chirped. The atmosphere in the room was impossible to pick up on at the moment.

"No I'm not," Lincoln simply replied, but he seemed only care for the book currently. He knew they would believe what they wanted to, even if he said otherwise.

"But why do you want to leave us for three months then?" Lola looked ready to beg at a moment's notice. Lana was no different.

"I don't want to leave any of you. I just need to change things up. I need a different pace… I've been doing the same thing for years and everything I used to love doing just bores me now," Lincoln felt his head hurting. He felt irritated that all of his sisters were rejecting his desire.

" _ **I'm sorry!**_ I know I've gone overboard and hurt you a lot…" Lynn pinned the blame on herself. Their only brother huffed in annoyance.

"You've waited on me hand and foot for the last few weeks for stuff you did that barely did any harm to me, aside from bruises," Lincoln claimed. He was growing suspicious of Lynn's actions. He swore if he asked, she would massage him without hesitation.

"But I broke your hand…"

"Dislocated his pinky," Lola corrected her.

"But look, you don't need to go help run a camp to get out of this rut," Lynn tried to say, but her brother shook his head.

"We talked about this in the park, Lynn… _At least the rut part…_ I'm not interested in doing the stuff you guys like. I just get in the way half the time. Now look. I have to study for my test next week, so if I see any signs of someone trying to sabotage me or mess me up, I won't forgive any of you," Lincoln warned them, his patience drying like a riverbed in the desert. They all looked terrified at the thought of him never forgiving them. Even if he was exaggerating, they knew he could get far angrier than Lori if he had to, or if he lost complete control.

" _Can we just say one thing…?_ " Lola mused.

"What?"

" _We…_ " Lola began to stammer. Before Lincoln or Lynn knew it, the twins were tightly latched onto his legs.

" **PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US, LINCOLN!** "

"My tea parties will never be the same without my prince! …or sometimes a king… or butler…!"

"Who else is going to help get the mud out of my ears?!"

"You're the best photographer for my runway practice for contests, too!"

"You make the best grilled cheese!"

"Lola… Lana…" Lynn could see Lincoln looking down at them, not sure how to reply. He felt bad for them, but they were acting like he was being drafted for the military.

"I had a feeling the noise this time was bad," Rita chimed up. She and her husband stood in their only son's doorway to his room. Lynn Jr was trying to warn the twins about them.

"Mom! Dad!" Lola let go of Lincoln and ran to them.

"Please try to talk Lincoln out of this! He wants to go to some camp for…"

"Lola, we know! Calm down, you look like you're about to faint," Lynn Sr insisted. He swore she was hyperventilating.

"You know that he wants to leave…?" Lana asked, "This is what you were talking about with him earlier?"

"Yes, and after we talked to him about it, we talked with each other a long while, too," the mother of the Loud family claimed.

"What do you two think we should do then…?" Lynn Jr grew quite depressed from imagining their family without Lincoln for three months.

"Nothing, honey. We're going to let your brother prove he can do this with that test next week," Lynn Sr declared. His wife had convinced him with that practically silver tongue of hers.

" _ **Really?!**_ Thank you so much!" Lincoln jumped for joy. This was the first time they had seen their son genuinely happy today. It was heartwarming to the Loud parents, he hugged them both happily.

" _But…_ " Lola whimpered. Lana already left during that slight distraction, the same vanishing technique Lucy seemed to use when surprising people or leaving without notice.

" _Damn it…_ " Lynn bit her lip. Looking to the happy sibling made her heart warm, but it did little to calm how upset the news made her.

"You prove your old man wrong. Alright, champ?" Lynn Sr insisted. He wanted to be proven wrong on this and hope that everything would work out, but in the end, only Lincoln could and had to make it work now.

"I'll do my best, Mom and Dad!" Lincoln nodded.

"It's great to see you so excited to help people," Rita smiled. Moments like these were what they lived for. It was just a way that the parents knew their children were growing up with good hearts.

" _No… but… but…_ " Lola stammered. Lincoln came over and helped her out of the floor.

"We can play tea party when I finish studying for tonight, alright?" Lincoln told one of the two third youngest sisters.

"Lola?" Lynn chirped when there was no response. Lola's eyes swelled with water and her lip was quivering. She ran off to the younger kids' room, not able to hold back how upset she was with their only brother leaving.

"I don't blame her for taking it hard… She'll get over it once she understands," Rita told them, aware that the happy tone of things also had a sad undertone to them all.

"I… Guess I'll get out of your hair," Lynn told Lincoln, and then began to leave his room.

"Lynn… let me just say this, I know that it's hard to imagine your brother being gone for even two days, but that is no excuse to act up. So if one of you mess this up for him, there will be big trouble," Lynn Sr said, trying to make sure the warning was there since one sibling getting the warning naturally would spread it to the others by inevitably telling them.

"I'll say it again. If **ANY** one of you mess this up for Lincoln, you're **ALL** going to be grounded for a **LONG** time… we know you kids mess with each other a lot, but this is something that he has to do alone," the balding man's look in his eyes was intense enough to get his point across.

"I would never mess this up for him…" Lynn murmured, but understood. Lincoln was surprised when she gave him a quick hug before leaving to go downstairs to get more ice cream.

"Thanks, Mom and Dad… It's nice to know I don't have to be paranoid for once," the bucktoothed boy felt relieved. His parents understood how he felt. With eleven children, they had to be worried about every last one of them constantly while respecting their personal spaces at the same time.

"You just do your best and that'll be enough for us… I'll come tell you when dinner's ready," Rita rubbed his head. With that said and done, their parents left to get dinner started. Lincoln had a bright expression with nothing but joy radiating from his personal aura.

"I need to get back to studying…" Lincoln headed back into his room, closing the door behind him. He looked at himself in the mirror, taking in a deep breath. He had to promise himself one thing.

 _"I will succeed! I will help not just Clyde and Ronnie Anne, but all those that I meet at the camp!"_ He looked at the picture of his entire family resting nearby on the dresser.

 ** _"They can enjoy their peace without me bothering them for a few months too..."_**


	4. Support?

That week came and passed in no time. The Loud house, for those few days, felt jumbled. Everybody was more focused on themselves than ever before, one half was studying and the other half were making sure they did not cause trouble. Their parents thought it might be a good thing since there was a lot more peace and quiet, but they quickly realized that silence in their normally Loud home was a terrible thing.

"Well boy, wish me luck," Lincoln sat on the front porch tying his shoe, his dog Charles beside him. Despite his age, he was not much bigger than he was when they first got him. The tiny dog was scratching his ear, barely paying much attention to one of his many masters.

" _Yeah…_ You're right. I can't rely on luck," he nodded. Pretending that his animal talked back to him helped a lot, same with most of their family. They used to all talk to Lily about their issues by unintentionally venting, and even that helped a lot, but now that she was developing a vocabulary of her own, they were not going to go telling the toddler everything about their lives as result of this.

"I better get going. I have a long walk to do if I want to get there on time," Lincoln patted the dog's head. He would be taking the bus to his destination, but he did not trust public transportation for safety issues, and his legs were far more reliable for quick escapes if he had to.

" **Wait! _Lincoln!_** "

He stopped himself two steps down the block, looking back at his house to see Lori standing there. She had clearly rushed to catch him before he could leave.

"What is it Lori? Is something wrong?" Lincoln asked, concerned. Charles went back inside past the oldest sister as she pulled out the family van's keys, jingling them slightly.

"I thought I'd offer you a ride. You have that big test today, right?"

"What do you want in trade then?" Lincoln looked skeptical as his eyebrow rose, but he planned to refuse anyway. The oldest sister always tried to get free favors by offering others rides in trade. The other older siblings had no need to get a driver's license yet, they were content walking most of the time.

"What? I can't just do something nice for my little brother for the sake of being nice?" Lori jokingly responded, only to be greeted by his unamused expression.

"Knowing you? No… Well, I'll see you later," Lincoln turned on his heels, about to leave. His oldest sister felt her heart twang in guilt. She grabbed him and spun him right back around to face her before he could leave.

"Alright! _**Alright!**_ I'm sorry for whatever I did to make you mad at me… But I just want to talk, that's all," Lori said. He was more confused by her sentence, but that look of worry in her eyes made her feel genuine with her request to talk.

" _Okay…?_ I don't remember being mad about anything this week though… Honestly, it's come and gone really fast since I always had my face stuffed in a book," Lincoln jokingly responded. As far as he knew nobody had upset him. There was an inconvenience that needed his attention every now and then, but that was normal. He didn't know why Lori thought he was even remotely cross with them.

"But you didn't say a single thing to me this entire week," Lori tried to inform him as the two went over to Vanzilla.

"Oh… well it wasn't intentional. Everyone's seemed really busy, so I kept to myself," Lincoln explained as they both got into the family van. He stayed in the passenger seat. His oldest sister got in the driver's seat, not sure whether or not to be relieved that he wasn't upset, hearing him act more reclusive countered that relief with more worry.

"Everyone's been preparing for something important… That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to know if you really wanted to go to this summer camp to just break out of a rut," Lori started, leaving the car keys in the ignition. The two remained stationary in the driveway.

"I can't really think of much else to do, everything I used to love has become too boring to stand," Lincoln claimed, feeling like he had repeated this conversation several times by now, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's because… Everyone knows by now, obviously, and I know you weren't trying to be secretive about it, but it's really made everyone upset and worried about you. Lily couldn't even go to sleep the night when she first heard the news," Lori continued, sounding remorseful for their youngest sister. If Lily was here with them right now, the toddler would most likely be as sorrowful as that very night.

"Out of everyone in our family, I'm surprised she got clingy to me instead of Luna," Lincoln admitted. He had no idea exactly how much all of his sisters were rather attached to him that the mere thought of him hating any of them depressed them, and could ruin how they felt for a good while.

"Of course she did! Just like how you were at that age, you were clingy to Luna and Lynn," Lori reminded him, recalling all those times when he was lulled to sleep by Luna or how much he played with Lynn the best he could despite his age.

"Are they actually worried about me…? Or worried about me not being able to help them anymore?," Lincoln questioned. His oldest sister did not know how to respond. She now was beginning to agree that maybe they did make the impression that they only wanted to use him a lot of the time, according to Lisa.

"We're always going to be worried. That's why we love you… We wouldn't be family if we didn't take care of each other, so please, if there is something we're missing to this big picture, please, _**PLEASE,**_ tell someone while we can help!" the blonde woman looked to the floorboard, "…There are a lot of things that can only wait so long before it's too late to go back… You should know that _**IF**_ you need help, then getting that help doesn't make you weaker as a person…"

After listening, Lincoln reached over and pulled his oldest sister into a hug.

"Thanks, Lori… But don't worry. I just need a change in activities," he assured. He knew that most people refused to seek help and tried to fight through their mental issues themselves, out of fear of becoming dependent on said help.

"That's good to hear… It really is… I hate having to bother Ronnie Anne to ask how you're doing…" Lori confessed, not hiding that she requested her boyfriend's little sister to keep her up to date with anything that seemed off about Lincoln.

"I hate having to bother any of you for anything too… _I hate being a burden …_ " Lincoln murmured underneath his breath.

"What was that?" Lori stared at him, having not heard the last of his sentence.

"…nothing, don't worry about it. Let's just get going," Lincoln did not want to dwell on it by giving more of his problems to his sister than he believed he had done already.

"Well, we would've been on the road already, but to show our support for what you're doing, some of the others wanted to try and take this test, too," Lori decided to no longer hide what they were waiting for. Hearing that news made their brother raise an eyebrow.

" _ **Really?**_ " Lincoln was surprised. He watched as the older sisters of the family came from the house. They were all finished getting prepared. Lisa followed along right behind them.

"Wow… that's really-… awesome…?" Lincoln could already tell they were fighting for what seats to have, even though they had a lot more room without their entire family. Evidently, the best seats were still an issue to squabble over.

"Oh, son of a… I thought they agreed to _**NOT**_ fight today…" Lori held her head, guessing this was just another sign of how stressed everyone had become.

"I'll deal with this…" Lincoln sighed. Lori watched as he leaned over and firmly pressed the steering wheel. The loud, blaring car horn seemed to startle them all out of the fight.

"Ow! My ears!"

"Jeez! Talk about an itchy _'honking'_ finger…"

"Dang, dude. We were right next to the car!"

"Now I remember why mom and dad got a loud horn in the first place…"

They watched their brother get out of the car, looking disappointed in this.

"You all want to take the test, right?" he asked his many older family members.

"Lori and I are just coming for moral support," Lisa claimed. Lori nodded from the driver's seat, but was still too afraid to step out. The oldest Loud sibling had wanted to have a heart to heart with Lincoln, to see if she could get him to open up about any issues he was possibly hiding from them.

"I mean, it's going to be an hour long ride there…" Lynn said, trying to justify the fighting, but surely that was a bad response to give. Their brother looked unwilling to deal with their domestic issues.

"Ye-yeah! Why don't you take the best seat, little dude?" Luna offered him. She knew how uncomfortable the passenger seat was. She thought that maybe offering him the best spot in the car would cheer him up.

"I have a better idea," Lincoln coughed, "I'm going to tell each of you where to sit, and I expect you to sit there and be happy about it, alright? I'm **_NOT_ **going to be late because you all decided to start fighting over seats. I'll give you all ten minutes."

" _Lincy…_ " Leni meekly spoke, feeling disheartened by his harsh tone.

"Affirmative," Lisa did not try to resist. If it made him feel better, how bad could it be?

"Sorry, little bro," Luna nodded slowly.

"I'll gladly let you see us to our _'seats'_ ," Luan smiled.

"Sure, Lincoln," Lynn agreed. Lori was amazed at how well their brother had wrangled them up. It almost was like how she acted with her authoritative tone as a means to get their siblings to behave.

"Luan, you ride shotgun. Luna, you get the back seat far left. Lynn, you ride in the middle. Leni, you can have the far right first row," Lincoln ordered. The seating placements seemed fine to the older sisters, so they agreed.

"What about Lisa?" Lori questioned, wondering if he had forgotten her.

"She can have the best seat," Lincoln simply said, while helping the child prodigy into the car. His words surprised them.

"What? My genetic sharing relative, you can have it! I don't need its glorious comfort!" Lisa insisted. She never thought a day would come where someone would not actively want the best seat when it was practically handed to them.

"I haven't earned it. I'll sit beside Luna," Lincoln simply replied, while rubbing her head.

"Earned it? Linc, what are you talking about? You don't have to earn anything! Just take it and be happy, please," Luna requested. Lincoln looked at his phone to see the time.

"It's been ten minutes," he remained idle, ignoring the combined siblings offers.

" **JUST GET IN THE CAR OR GO BACK IN THE** **HOUSE** **!** " Lori shouted from the driver's seat, scaring them all into instantly getting into their seats.

"Thanks, Lori," Lincoln smiled, getting into Vanzilla and pulling the sliding door shut.

"What can I say? I'm tired of people fighting for seats, too…" the oldest Loud started the car before pulling out of the driveway. Now they were on their way to the destination so that most of them could take the test. The ride ran on pure silence, with nothing but concern in the atmosphere. Lincoln simply looked out the window at the scenery as they drove.

"Are you okay, Lincoln…?" Luna hesitantly asked. His focus remained toward the window instead of averting to her.

"Yeah… I'm just anxious for the test," after his answer, the rock lover did not know how or where else to take the conversation. Silence returned for the rest of the ride.

* * *

The drive to the small community center where the test was held only took an hour, yet the silence made it feel like an eternity.

"I wonder if Clyde and Ronnie Anne are here already," Lincoln pondered to himself as the car began to come to a stop.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Lincoln?" Lynn asked. She knew Lincoln was annoyed to have his decision doubted, but they wanted to make sure he was not going to burn out most of his summer on nothing.

"Lynn, I spent a week studying to no end. There's no way I'm turning tail and running at the last second, back to my boring rut in the ground," Lincoln got out of the car.

"It was somewhat asinine to inquire that," Lisa told the sports lover while she unhooked her seatbelt.

"Oh, be quiet…" the auburn haired girl bitterly replied as the several family members got out of the car and began to make their way inside. Lori sensed something familiar about one of the cars, but shrugged it off as her being paranoid.

"Babe? Is that you?" a familiar voice caught their attention.

" **Boo-Boo Bear!** What're you doing here?" Lori eagerly rushed over and tackled her boyfriend, Bobby Santiago. The workaholic chuckled, giving her a tight hug in reply. Lincoln knew why he was here, but decided to just let his oldest sister enjoy the moment.

"Oh, Ronnie Anne wanted to take this test to become a junior counselor at this camp. I couldn't say no after all the hard work she put into studying," Bobby explained. Lori was surprised. She did not think that his little sister would be studying as hard as her little brother for the same thing.

"Funny, Lincoln's here for the same thing… Guess I shouldn't be too surprised," the short blonde haired woman sighed. As their hug ended, she could see the worry on her boyfriends face as well. He had raised Ronnie Anne himself, but he was despised by his little sister over working more jobs than it was humanly possible.

"Are you holding up alright Lori? You look like you've been trying not to break down…" Bobby requested an honest answer, he had seen his girlfriend like this enough times during their many years together to be able to tell when she was upset, and she never intended to hide it from him.

" _Well…_ Bobby, Lincoln's been treating himself so badly. He talks about his life now like he's some burden to every one of us," Lori explained to him now that the two were alone outside. The oldest Loud at first did not believe Luna's claims, but with each day that passed, it all rung truer to her.

"Aw, babe, come on. I'm sure it's nothing to get worked up over…" the Santiago boy offered, "Do you want me to talk to him?"

"Everyone already has. Mom and Dad think this'll be the best for him, and they won't listen to anyone of us… the most we can do is have someone else go as an adult counselor with him to make sure he's alright," Lori replied. She knew Bobby and Lincoln used to be close, but when they began spending too much time together, it had begun hurting his and Lori's relationship. Thus they had to stop spending time together as bros. She simply could not stand someone else having Bobby's full attention like that, or at least used to. She felt terrible from knowing all Lincoln sacrificed for her.

"Give him some credit Lori," Bobby tried to comfort his significant other, "He's probably just going through a lot with puberty… I know when I was that age, everything seemed like living hell to me. I couldn't go a single day without getting into some sort of fight. …Funny, I went to this same camp when I was real little. It was one of the best times of my life… though I did kinda break one of my counselors' legs with a prank of mine. Not that he ever found out."

" _Really…?_ So this camp isn't bad?" Lori wanted to hear some reassurance that things were calm at the location where this camp was going to be.

"Leaf Crown Lake's the only camp I've been to, but I loved it…" Bobby spoke, "It sucks that it got closed down for a while though. The man running it was working with one of the adult counselors to hide money out in the woods monthly, laundering scheme y'know? They got caught and the money got taken with'em."

"Using kids as an excuse to sneak money away… Real class act," Lori huffed. The man running the camp program was supposed to be here to monitor the people taking the test.

"I'm actually surprised you're this calm babe, I thought you'd blow a gasket the second you saw her car," the Santiago boy smiled, glad to be able to relax.

"Whose car, Boo-Boo Bear?" Lori quirked an eyebrow instantly. Her boyfriend looked regretful for opening his mouth.

"Well, _uhh…_ y'know how there's three adult counselors already, right?" Bobby asked. His girlfriend nodded.

" _Yeah…?_ "

"Two of them are here… I don't know who the first one was but… the other one is…" Bobby's voice trailed off as he lost all confidence fast.

"Who? Who is it?" the oldest Loud demanded, her worry taken over again out of concern for their brother.

"It's Carol…" he finally forced the words out of his mouth, "Y'know… _Carol Pingrey…_ "

" ** _WHAT?!_ CAROL FREAKING PINGREY IS A COUNSELOR?!**" Lori screamed. How she loathed the bane of her existence during her whole time at school. Everything that Lori did, Carol would always outshine her in doing. She even took advantage of this similar identity deal to cause some mayhem to ruin the oldest Loud sister's reputation at school occasionally, to no repercussions.

"Baby! You're overreacting! It's just Carol! You know that she's great with kids," Bobby tried to calm his girlfriend down. She grabbed him by the lapels.

"We're taking that test, Bobby," Lori snarled, her eyes burning with fury. Carol was the last person she would trust to take care of anyone of her family.

" _ **What?!**_ Lori, we haven't even studied anything for this," Bobby argued as his girlfriend dragged him inside.

"How hard can it be?! It's just going to be some stupid questions about kids and what to do in emergencies! That's easy as plain pie!" Lori insisted. Her boyfriend groaned while he was dragged along.

" _I miss when you just wanted to always cuddle…_ "

* * *

Lincoln stood away from his family. His best friend and girlfriend waited for him inside. His many sisters were all doing their part to mentally prepare themselves for the test.

"So your older sisters are trying to take the test too?" Clyde had to hear this again. It sounded odd to him, considering how much most of the Loud sisters hated camping.

"They said they wanted to support what I wanted to do… It'd be really nice to know I'd have two less counselors to get used to," Lincoln chuckled, unable to deny his worry about not getting along with the other counselors.

"Can't disagree with that… y'know, Lame-o, I swear I saw Chandler around here earlier," Ronnie Anne claimed to her long-time boyfriend. Those words confused the two best friends.

"What? Ronnie Anne, you have to be imagining things. There's no way Chandler would be here," Lincoln responded doubtfully. That seemed to be enough to get his girlfriend to agree, since it did seem far fetched.

" _Soooo_ Lincoln… Does that mean Lori might be going with us to that camp?" Clyde wondered. He had a giant crush on Lori once, but Lincoln caught him stealing specific pieces of laundry one too many times, and a harsh reality check snapped his best friend out of his obsession. As well as a punch or two.

"I doubt it. She hasn't even studied much this week… Okay, never mind," Lincoln coughed, seeing Lori and Bobby far off across the room. Everyone who was supposed to take the test was meant to stay outside of the room when the testing was happening.

"Oh, this should be rich," Ronnie Anne smirked, not caring if Bobby tried to take the test. She knew he would purposely fail. He had too many jobs to handle to simply drop them all to be a counselor.

"There's Butch, too," Clyde gestured to the man running the program. Butch was trying to get everything organized and ready to go before the test could proceed.

Lincoln however felt the hands of Lisa tugging on his arm. "Hm? Oh hey, Lisa, is something wrong?"

"No, everything is alright as far as I'm aware. I just wanted to come by and wish you and your comrades luck on the test," Lisa adjusted her glasses. Her brother chuckled, picking her up and giving her a thankful hug. Clyde and Ronnie Anne saw this as cute.

"Thanks, Lisa. I owe you for letting me borrow all those books… I read them about four times each," Lincoln declared. Hearing that surprised his genius sibling.

" _Talk about being determined to get the job…_ " Ronnie Anne mumbled to Clyde.

"I've never heard him study that much before," Clyde nodded, finding it equally strange how determined their best friend was to do this.

"Yes, _well…_ I'm grateful for your appreciation. I just want to apologize to you for all the experimenting I did on you… whether or not you were aware… and the unannounced spying with variously placed cameras…" Lisa began to ramble, trying to list off all the things she wanted to apologize for to him. She was still embarrassed to be held like this.

"There's nothing to apologize for… I've ruined probably a good dozen of your experiments. I can't say I didn't deserve every negative thing that happened to me… Karma is a weird girl, I guess," Lincoln reassured. His words however made the child prodigy feel angry, a rare thing for her to even get close to feeling.

"Nobody deserves unwarranted punishment… Something we all have done to you too many times to even begin asking for your forgiveness…" Lisa kept the hug up with him. Ronnie Anne and Clyde meanwhile left to give them privacy since the talk seemed to have devolved into a personal family matter discussion.

"Lisa, I know I probably deserved it. Even if I can't remember all my mistakes."

 _"Where in the name of the periodic table did you get this thought process from…?!"_ Lisa could only mentally scream, unable to find any words to continue the conversation, hearing him talk about himself like this was absolutely maddening.

" _Ca…Can I be relinquished to the ground now? I do not feel comfortable in this position._ "

"Nah. It reminds me of when you were really little and all you wanted to do was have me read those dictionaries to you until you fell asleep," Lincoln smirked. Reminding the second youngest Loud sister of this made her more embarrassed. She was certainly different from most young girls. She had been an oddball since birth, like most of the family.

" _Lincoln this is embarrassing… Please some people are watching,_ " Lisa whispered.

"You're just being paranoid," Lincoln laughed, ignoring the irritated rambling that immediately assailed his ears. He saw her being embarrassed as adorable to him.

"Ah, jeez. Guess the test is about to start… oh well. Sorry for that Lisa," Lincoln put her down when he noticed that everyone was beginning to take their seats, while anyone not here for the test was beginning to leave.

"I'll get out of your way. I wish you luck," Lisa told him once more, but before she could leave, her brother grabbed her shoulder.

"Hey, Lisa… You know how this test is going to work right?" he asked. The young scientist nodded.

"Affirmative… The people who do the best on the multiple tests overall will beat those that only do well on one. They're looking for variety and versatility, not specialists," Lisa explained. They wanted people who would treat this as a job, and the campers as human beings.

" _I think…?_ But yeah, I know you didn't come for moral support, and I sure know Lori wasn't planning on doing this either."

Lisa could feel a nervous sweat break out on her forehead "Ho…How did you know this?"

"No matter how many times you say otherwise, I know you don't think I'm that smart… So look, I'm going to need you to give me your phone, because we both know you're here to help them cheat," Lincoln held out his hand. His second youngest sister was in awe.

"Lincoln, I think you have a moderate IQ, just like many of our siblings…!" Lisa argued, but his honest face seemed to devolve into one of sadness.

"None of you trust me to actually do something on my own… If they pass, they should pass on their own, but I sure know that none of you came to support me," Lincoln claimed, his gaze more focused on the carpet right now.

"Quit saying such ridiculous stuff! Of course we're here to support you!" Lisa retorted, but he did not lower his hand. He sent a glare that for some reason made her freeze in fear.

" **Lisa.** I'm not asking you again to give me your phone. If you don't, I'll go tell the people running this that there's a few cheaters in here and get you all kicked out," Lincoln explained. It upset him to know that his sisters were not here to support him, instead they just wanted to try to keep an eye on him. It was like they had no faith or trust in him whatsoever, and that hurt him a lot more than any verbal arguing normally could do to a person.

" _You're…_ _You're not mad with me are you?_ " Lisa pulled her cellphone out of her pocket, not trying to resist anymore since their full plan had been discovered. Her brother gratefully took the cellphone.

"No, I'm not mad. Just disappointed," Lincoln took the battery out of the cellphone before he returned the phone to the child genius. There was nothing she could do with the item without a power source, he would give the battery back after the test.

"Most individuals that claim to be disappointed actually are angry…" the child genius looked upset. Her normally straight face seemed gone. She kept her focus on her cellphone, too afraid to look up to him.

"Sorry, Lisa... But they're not wrong," Lincoln patted Lisa's head before pocketing the powerless phone. He took leave to get to his seat.

 _"I'm so terrible… I go on saying we should let him do what he wants and then agree to their hair brained schemes…"_ Lisa held her head, irritated with her own hypocrisy. She began to leave the room to let them prepare for their test. It was obvious that their many siblings who were here had seen the phone be confiscated by their brother. It immediately made most of them worried.

" _Holy cow, Lincoln is on top of things…_ " Luna whispered in surprise.

"I guess the phone had the wrong _'ringtone'_ for him," Luan got several glares that made her go silent.

"Lisa looked like she was going to cry," Leni said, wanting to go get their younger sister, but she knew she would come to them if she did want to talk, otherwise Lisa would simply bottle it up as always.

 _" **Damn it!** That was my best chance…"_ Lynn held her head. She did not get to study much because she was indecisive on going with the other older sisters' plans until late into the week.

"He really didn't look happy," Lori may not have come in with the intention to cheat, but she was surprised by their brother's interaction. Bobby stayed silent on the matter, but he could tell his girlfriend was more focused on looking for Carol from afar.

"You okay, Lincoln?" Clyde asked as Lincoln took his seat.

"Lame-o, you look like you hate life right now," Ronnie Anne could only say, not sure how else to describe his expression.

" _Because right now, I do,_ " Lincoln flatly replied. The mere reply made the other two speechless.

"Alright, everyone. Hope you're ready. Two of the adult counselors are here with us today. They're going to keep an eye out for any signs of cheating and will be going around as well, so sorry if it feels like you're being watched, because… _well…_ you are! Good luck!" Butch announced loudly so the room of maybe twenty to thirty people could hear him clear.

"Well, at least he's honest," Ronnie Anne tried to stifle a laugh. Butch was trying and failing to not sound too awkward with matters.

Luna was patient to get their pieces of paper. To make sure no one was cheating, they had small dividers on the desks so that no one could look over others' works. People were separated by groups of five, with the person in the middle to have all the dividers.

"Here ya _g-_ …Luna?" that voice caught the aspiring rock star's full attention. She looked up to see a familiar blonde girl with a blue streak in her hair and two piercings in her ears.

" _ **Sam?**_ What are you doing here?!" Luna stood up and ecstatically hugged her. Sam was once a schoolmate of hers. The two had an interesting relationship, but neither advanced past much, despite the Louds' motivating for Luna to try harder.

"Oh, I'm an adult counselor for Leaf Crown Lake. I didn't plan on being one, but I met two of the kids that will be attending the camp," Sam stated, similar to Lincoln. She just wanted to help out others that needed it. Sam would not care at all if she had not met those kids, whether or not that said much was another story.

"Butch being a really persuasive dude had a hand in it too," Sam smiled, resting the paper on the desk for her.

"Hope you do good on the test, Luna. It'd be nice to have you around," she hummed. All the more reason for Luna to do well on the test, as if she did not have enough motivation before.

"Don't you worry, Sam! I'll make sure to bring my best acoustic guitar too," Luna grinned eagerly with nothing but confidence, knowing how much Sam loved listening to her rock out on the non electric equipment.

"Good luck," Sam simply said before continuing on to keep giving out the test papers. Lori watched from nearby, glad to see someone with their mood brightened for once. The oldest Loud sister had her attention grabbed when she got tapped on the head by the multiple pieces of paper.

"Hey, what's the big idea… _oh, of course,_ " Lori glared to the familiar Carol Pingrey. That long blonde hair with a blue band in it was a dead giveaway, despite the minor growth in her appearance over the years where they thankfully barely interacted, they still looked very similar.

"Glad to see you again, home-coming queen runner up," Carol hummed, clearly still as smug as the last time they met.

"It's great to see you too… So who's your boyfriend cheating on you with this time?" Lori retorted, trying to not lose complete control. They both could go back and forth with cheap shots for hours on end, even if all they had to go off of were old school rumors.

" _Al-alright,_ calm down, you two. I really can't handle the stress of all this combined," Bobby claimed in slight fear. It was a futile effort, but someone had to try.

"I broke up with _**HIM**_ two years ago… I hate to imagine how much you drain out of this poor guy though," Carol giggled, handing over their papers for the test.

"Hey, she doesn't drain me… _too much…_ okay, she does a lot…" Bobby mumbled, sitting back down upon feeling his girlfriend's glare pierce his very soul.

"I'm a little jealous, Lori," Carol tutted, "I mean, it must be good to be able to relax without having to worry about a job, while having ten younger slaves- I mean siblings to wait on you hand and foot, and a man that'll come running to you the second you snap your fingers."

Carol turned around to walk away, but before she could Lori grabbed her shoulder and turned her right back around.

"I've been waiting to do this for years," Lori delivered one strong punch to her face, knocking Carol back first onto the floor.

" _ **Babe!**_ " Bobby was slack jawed at this. Carol was out like a broken light.

" _…do I need to call the police?_ " Lincoln asked Ronnie Anne and Clyde, the two trying to pretend to ignore the catfight, along with the rest of the practical crowd.

"I take it you two know each other…?" Butch walked over with Sam to check on Carol. She seemed to be alright, but barely able to stand back up on her own two feet. A big bruise was now on her left eye.

" _They do…_ " Bobby coughed. Lori looked in bliss after getting all that built up anger out of her system.

"In that case, I'm gonna just take a guess and say you two'd be terrible together as counselors… and since Carol's already one, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave, ma'am," Butch explained as politely as he could, despite what he just saw.

" **What?!** " Lori snapped, "I can't even have a chance at the test? That's not fair!"

"Assault isn't fair either you crazy lady! So either leave, or I'll call the boys in blue… after all, we're maybe two miles away at most from the police station," Butch glared with his arms crossed. Lori bit her lip and groaned. She stood up and left. Bobby looked uncertain, but followed along to make sure his girlfriend did not go snapping again.

" _Uhhh…_ I'm sorry about Lori doing that, Carol…" Leni profusely apologized. Carol gave no reply, though the fashion loving Loud guessed that there might be a concussion causing that.

 _"For the love of Loud, Lori…! I forgot that my family loves making things harder for me…"_ Lincoln just hit his head on the desk with his hands on the back of his head. He might just be put into a bad spot with Carol, if he was to become a junior counselor. He wanted to simply take the test already with no more setbacks.

 _"I guess I deserve it though... 'sigh', I need to focus on this test."_


	5. Results

**Authors note: Hey all, I just had to make this note to let you know that, again, even though I said this at the start, and several times since, there is not going to be any loudcest here. There will be a subplot with it but there will be no romantic stuff, no incest or anything, so please, stop jumping the gun before it's even loaded. This is Fallen Pens dropping out.**

* * *

The test had been done for an hour now. The many that had taken it were idle and waiting, most taking it as an opportunity to talk, with the belief that they had to know each other if they were to be good counselors together on the chance they did pass.

"How did you two do?" Clyde asked his close friends, who were more interested in partially flirting than caring about the test results, since they could not predict the outcome of how well they did.

"Dunno… I honestly wonder how they're going to pick people from all this. It has to be hard," Ronnie Anne replied, aware that the junior counselors were most likely easy to sort out. There were maybe eight people in here taking the test under the junior category. Everyone else was adults, and there was a lot trying for the last two positions.

"I guess they'll call the ones that passed to stay? I don't really know how I did either… I spent all week studying myself," Lincoln answered while holding his girlfriend's hand, the two normally disliked to be too romantic in public, but the older loud sisters all seemed distracted. The Santiago teen was oblivious to the hostile glare she was receiving from Lynn, whose head peeked over one of the privacy dividers.

 _"He's still with her…"_ Lynn sighed, irritated just by the sight of them together. She knew her brother and the Santiago girl had been together a couple of years. Yet she had played dumb in belief that they would break up in due time.

"I just hope Carol's alright. Lori really packed a punch," Lincoln commented, still sounding worried. Sam and Carol had left with Butch to discuss things while glossing over the tests, and making sure Carol was not in any need of an ambulance.

"Trust me, I know…" Clyde slipped back into his chair.

"I wonder why it's named Leaf Crown Lake… I can guess why, but I've never heard of it before I started studying to become a counselor," Lincoln stated his curiosity, looking over to his girlfriend. He recalled when she first heard the name, it seemed to strike a familiar surprised cord in her brain.

"I only know what Bobby told me from when he went there a long time ago," the Santiago teen shrugged, leaning back, "The place has a lake that looks like a crown with a jewel in the center. People still can't decide if it's natural or not, but that didn't stop Michigan from trying to turn it into a tourist hot spot… It didn't work. Turns out, a lot of people don't care to go on day long hikes to just see one weirdly shaped thing, especially when the selling point was not even controllable."

"The selling point? Is there something special about the lake?" Lincoln asked her, not sure what else could be attractive about an oddly shaped lake. She could tell that she had gotten the two's interest so far. To them it sounded like an isolation location instead of a tourism hot spot.

"Apparently once a summer the lake practically explodes from the dozen geysers in it, and they make it look beautiful… Problem is, it's random. Bobby said he caught it once on a late night, but I never bought it," Ronnie Anne finished. That beautiful moment could never be experienced just from watching through a video online. It was one of those things in life that someone had to experience for themselves to get the best out of it.

" _Wow…_ Heh, maybe we'll get lucky and see it ourselves?" Clyde optimistically said.

"If we do pass the test," Lincoln tilted his head back. He raised an eyebrow when he swore that he saw Lynn peeking over the privacy divider, but all he had seen was a glimpse of her hair. He figured he was imagining things again, and he brushed it aside because he was not in the mood to question his sanity again.

"You spent all week studying, Lame-o. Have some confidence in yourself," Ronnie Anne held her boyfriend's hand.

"I haven't earned my confidence… I haven't earned a lot of things really," Lincoln shook his head. Hearing that alone made his girlfriend want to stand up and deck him across the face, but even she knew that would do nothing to break him out of his self despising mindset.

"I hope breaking out of your rut helps you… I can't stand to see you like this," Ronnie Anne declared. No matter how bad it got though, she planned on going through to the end with him and try everything she could to help him. She felt some relief when she saw a smile on his face.

"Thanks, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln chuckled warmly, thankful to have her in his life, even if she abused him a lot, both playfully and literally.

"Alright, everyone! The tests are done being examined!" An announcement from Butch who stood at the end of the room sounded. Sam and a still half dazed Carol stood beside him. That fake Australian tone got everyone's attention fast, if only because it sounded so much like the start of a terrible comedy routine.

" _Bout time,_ " Lynn mumbled, irritated from the long amount of patience needed.

"Here's how it's gonna work to decide who needs to stay. If you don't hear your name, then we're sorry, it means you did not pass," Sam exclaimed. She then let the man running the last chance camp program take point from there.

"Those that took the junior counselor tests and shall remain are… Lincoln Loud, Ronnie Anne Santiago, Lynn Loud, Clyde McBride, and Chandler… _Ter-gen?_ " Butch scratched his head, unable to properly pronounce the last name of the last person he called.

"It's **Terrigun!** " Chandler called back.

"Chandler seriously _**IS** _here?" Lincoln was surprised, not sure how to feel about this.

"I told you," Ronnie Anne said with her arms crossed. She didn't blame him for not believing her though.

"What's he get from trying to support kids that need help?" Clyde asked. They knew the semi bully only made friends and invited people to his renown parties if he could gain something from them, becoming a counselor for a camp of kids in desperate need was a selfless act instead.

"As for those that took the test to become adult counselors… Leni, Luan and Luna Loud…? _Wow, there are a lot of Louds here…_ **Ah-hem!** Thank you all for volunteering and trying to take the test, but you were either outdone by one of the people mentioned or simply were not what we were looking for, and we apologize for that," Butch finished announcing the names. Most of the crowd seemed to understand, but there were a few clearly disagreeing about the decisions.

"Haha! Yeah!" Luna grinned.

"Wow, we actually did it without Lisa…?" Luan was genuinely surprised at the news.

" _Wait…_ I thought they only needed two more adult counselors?" Leni wondered aloud. That thought did confuse her younger sisters. Most of the Loud sisters studied ridiculously hard, aside from Luna and Lynn who had been hoping for Lisa's help.

"Eh… let's not _'pass'_ it off as much. Maybe we got an exception made for us?" Luan happily suggested. The optimism was welcomed, despite the bad pun. They just had to wait for everyone to clear the room first before they could be permitted to talk to Butch, mainly for the sake of privacy.

* * *

Once the room was cleared and everyone was gathered up, they all stood at one big table.

"Let me just start off by saying, I'm really excited with the results I've seen from your tests. It's good to know these kids have reliable people to watch out for them," Butch explained. Lincoln was more surprised that he had passed the mental part of the questioning. That test had so many varying topics that it felt like a final test in college for someone taking several courses at once.

"So," Butch coughed, "Do you have any questions?"

Luan slightly raised her hand. "I have one. Why do you try so hard to sound different? It makes you look really, really weird."

"I have no idea what you're talkin' about…" the man running the program ignored her. He obviously had no true answer to it.

"I thought you only needed two more adult counselors? Did the third quit?" Leni decided to add another question in while the opportunity was there. The atmosphere seemed to tense up.

"Well no… _at least I sure hope not…_ But you three pretty much did exactly the same on the test, so that made us have to pick from your personal experience with the other counselors, since you all clearly know each other," Butch began, casting a gaze over to Carol who still seemed to be absorbing how she was punched, or absorbing the concussion it was very hard to tell.

"Heh… so which of us made it for adult counselor?" Luna smirked with confidence in her being. However, the answer instantly felt like a dagger to the heart.

"Leni and Luan did," Carol answered to the best of her ability, not wanting to be idle completely during this.

"Yay! We did it!" the joyful Leni hugged her comedic sister.

"I guess we did some _'grade A'_ work," the teenage comedian laughed, not caring for the groans around her. Lincoln could tell why his rock loving sibling was distraught over this, but he had a feeling he already knew why she wasn't chosen.

"Bu-but Sam! I get along perfectly with her and I have no problem with Carol! Is this third person someone that hates me?!" Luna demanded, looking ready to strangle Butch more than anything, at the thought of not being there for her brother and Sam.

"I don't know if you know him or not, but Sam was the one who talked to me about you two… I'm not saying you two don't get along. In fact, you two get along too well," the young man tried to alleviate the situation, but just upset her further. Luna's eyes glazed over to her crush.

"I'm sorry. _Luna…_ I was more than happy to have you go to the camp with us, at first. But seeing all these people trying so hard to volunteer to help these kids, made me realize that this shouldn't be just about me. Everybody has to be selfless in this camp, and yet… well, you didn't seem like you wanted to come to help anybody," Sam tried to explain holding her head looking remorseful, "I'm sorry, but… you'd be a big distraction for me, and that'd hurt everybody. I'll make it up to you once I come back I promise."

"But… _But…_ Lincoln?" Luna wondered if her little brother would vouch for her.

"I already talked to Lisa about this before. I'm disappointed enough in what you all were going to do... Sam's right though, you wanted to come join this camp just for your own gain," Lincoln's words did nothing but hurt his older sister. He was still irritated that his sisters would attempt to cheat to follow him. Everyone knew that was partially true. Chandler was more interested in flipping a coin to cure his boredom.

"Did the rest of us pass?" Lynn asked, hoping no one else had to leave despite having passed.

"Yup! You all did great… It just felt wrong to let someone who studied hard leave without at least telling them why they didn't pass," Butch stated his reasoning, relieved to not be hurt.

"Like I said, Luna. I'll make it up to you, so don't get upset about it…" Sam spoke, but watched as the upset guitarist stormed off, leaving nothing behind but a toppled over chair and a tense atmosphere for the room.

" _ **Drama queen,**_ " Chandler scoffed. Normally if anybody insulted his family like that, Lincoln would backlash them in a heartbeat. But after right now, he would let him have that. Mainly because it was entirely true.

"So… what happens now?" Ronnie Anne broke the mostly frozen conversation.

"Cars can't get to the camp due to the terrain. It takes nearly two days hiking… You all should be ready, because tomorrow morning, you're going to take a bus to go outside of Royal Woods as far as it can take you, from there you have to hike," Butch declared, allowing the crowd let the information sink in and react well, or badly.

"I've never been on a hike that long! I bet I can make it in a day," Lynn eagerly claimed.

"I hope we don't have to do that a lot," Clyde rubbed his head nervously.

"If we have to ration food weekly, that means we do…" Lincoln muttered. This did nothing to dwindle his desires down. He had tolerated a lot worse than a long walk, but a long walk carrying a lot of heavy weight was another story.

"I'm guessing the counselors have their own supplies to ration out for themselves?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Mhm!" Butch nodded, "You all should be able to handle rationing your own supplies separately from the campers' rations."

"Oh, I didn't think there'd be that much work right off the bat…" Leni held her head, thinking they would at least have a grace period of some sort. Extra food sounded like another word for more weight to carry.

"And here I thought we were at the _'homerun'_ ," Luan grinned.

"The bus'll be waiting for you all at seven a.m., tomorrow morning," Butch began to leave his position, "Thank you all again for your efforts. If you genuinely can help these kids, that'll be more than enough to make how much money I put into this worth it."

Butch continued to walk away on that note.

"I'm gonna take Carol to the hospital. She's been fading in and out for too long," Sam stated, wanting her semi-friend to get better soon. They had young people depending on all of them after all.

"Sorry again about Lori," Lincoln apologized, "She's been on edge today."

" _My favorite color is seven…_ " Carol groggily coughed.

"That's my favorite color, too!" Leni clapped. Luan held her head, not even able to make a joke out of that.

"Alright, we'll see you all tomorrow… Tell Luna I'm sorry again," Sam apologized, she left to help Carol along, worrying that the concussion had worsened, or the head pain had really gotten so bad that it made Carol's IQ drop to Leni's level.

"So what should we do now?" Lynn questioned. They had plenty of time left before they needed to go home to start packing. It was barely two in the afternoon.

"We could get some pizza to celebrate?" Ronnie Anne suggested.

"That sounds great," Lincoln nodded, eager. That interaction visibly annoyed Lynn. The Santiago girl picked up on it, a suspicious eyebrow raised.

"Yeah! I'm starved!" Clyde agreed.

"I could go for some pepperoni pizza," Lynn nodded, trying to hide her irritation.

"Aw! But I wanted to get mushrooms on mine," Leni whined.

"We need to wrangle up everyone else first," Luan commented. They were not exactly going to get far without Lori, Luna or Lisa. There were no plans to go anywhere without them either.

"I can't wait to tell mom and dad the news," Lincoln had the biggest smile that any of his family or friends had seen on his face in a long time. It was relieving for all of them to see.

"I'll pass," Chandler stood up.

"Seriously, Chandler?" Lincoln turned to him, "You're going to pass up on free pizza? It's on us."

"I just want to go back to my friend's place and sleep… See you tomorrow," Chandler walked off with his hands in his pocket. Lincoln could tell something was wrong with his schoolmate, mainly because of how passive aggressively nice he had been.

"Guess there's more people that'll be at this camp that need help than just the kids…" he scratched his white haired head before being helped out of his seat.

"Well, come on. I'm sure we can find Lori somewhere with Bobby," Ronnie Anne insisted. Her bucktoothed boyfriend nodded in agreement. The small group left the mostly empty room, all happy to know they had passed the test, but for some today had gotten worse, despite the good news for others.

"I sure hope Luna isn't too upset about what happened… _or jealous of Carol…or jealous of one of us…_ " Leni's voice trailed off at the end. Even if it was understandable, they would much prefer there to be no jealousy or bitterness from their rock loving sister, simply because things did not go the way she wanted.

"She can suck it up," Ronnie Anne scoffed, not wanting to hear more about Luna's little crisis. She could feel Lynn's eyes locked onto the back of her head like daggers. The Santiago tried to keep focused instead, but creeped out as she was by Lynn's cold gaze, she was making a mental note to talk with her boyfriend later privately about his sporty sister.

 _"I better keep an eye out... I'm starting to not trust that ball buster..."_


	6. Terror

Lincoln was in an awkward position at a pizza shop not far away, the rather large group sat outside at a large table, all in different moods.

 _"I don't even know how to break the ice without the help of a drill…"_ Lincoln thought to himself. Lisa, Luan, Leni, Ronnie Anne and Clyde seemed perfectly fine, and Lynn seemed to be okay, Lori looked satisfied to have took her anger out from all these years against Carol. Bobby on the other hand, was afraid of making the wrong move and upsetting his girlfriend. Luna however looked destroyed from that conversation earlier.

" _So…_ " Lincoln began to speak, "Any idea on why Chandler was acting like… _well…_ not Chandler?"

"Why do you think I know everything that goes on at our school?" Ronnie Anne responded, "I just hear rumors, the same as you and everyone else there."

"Because your fists get to know a lot of people," Lincoln tried to jokingly say. Luan gave an optimistic thumbs up to that joke.

"He said he was going to go back to his friends. I'm wondering what's up with that," Clyde chimed up, recalling the semi-bully's words.

"The individual wearing galoshes? I saw him for a few minutes outside of the facilities. Frankly, from my distant observations, he looked emotionally exhausted," Lisa claimed, recalling her only brother talk about Chandler before on several occasions, usually always revolving around not being invited to parties or the sorts. The child genius had to bite her tongue to avoid comparing Lincoln to him, even if the two had a ton of similarities at the moment.

"We can ask him about it later. We're all going to be isolated in the woods with basically no connections to the outside world for a few months. Ain't much you can do other than get to know people," Ronnie Anne assured. They had plenty of time to get to the bottom of his problem, if her boyfriend really desired to do so. The Santiago teen was only agreeing to this because her boyfriend was genuinely concerned.

"I'm surprised you'd try to do anything for him, Lincoln, the guy jerked you around a lot… A week before summer vacation, he practically sent a small gang after you, didn't he?" Clyde inquired while trying to remember that tough moment to the best of his ability.

"Yeah, he did," Lincoln nodded. His siblings stared at him, all shocked.

"You never told us you were being bullied? **Why?**!" Lynn felt agitated that Lincoln did not tell them anything all. All of his sisters were worried that Lincoln would even be bullied once, they were surprised he had been able to keep it secret somehow.

"He offered them invitations to his last pre-summer party... I didn't say anything because you would've just made things worse. I'm not smart, but even I know it's a bad idea to even try and stand up to bullies," Lincoln exclaimed after swallowing another mouthful of his pizza. He was more lost in his own mind than focusing on anything. "I did something to deserve it… Nobody sends squads after people for no reason."

"You did _**NOT**_ deserve that! Next time that happens, you tell _**US**_! Alright?" Lori scolded Lincoln. Her bright mood seemed to deteriorate a second after hearing him ridicule himself. It added onto Luna's point before that he was seemingly trying to get away from some problems in his life, rather than trying to escape the simple pit of boredom.

"You didn't even tell me? …And you're terrible at keeping secrets! _How'd I miss that…?_ " Ronnie Anne wondered aloud. If she caught wind of that, she would hunt each and every one of those bullies down herself.

"I got beat up badly, but I stole a lot of the makeup that Lola steals to hide the bruises…" Lincoln let out a halfhearted chuckle, "They're healed up now. I'm a fast runner, remember?"

"That is not funny…" Luan shook her head solemnly

"…Luna? Can't you say something?" Leni asked. The guitarist did not reply. She clearly was upset to see Lincoln like this, but she had no spirit left in her after earlier.

"Jeez, little dude…" Bobby rubbed his head, wishing he could do something to cheer him up.

"So why'd you keep it secret, Clyde?" Lisa asked him, since if anybody knew it would most likely be him.

"I owe Lincoln some bro favors… Can't break a bro favor. It's the worst thing you could do," Clyde answered, his arms crossed. Things began to return to quiet. Some of the Loud sisters were trying to quietly bicker about why Lincoln was thinking like this.

"I'm going to the bathroom," Lincoln stood up from his seat, barely being heard as he went back inside the pizza restaurant to use their lavatory.

"I'll go too, since we're here," Ronnie Anne made her excuse before hopping up and following her boyfriend off. Lynn intently watched them, having lost interest in this partial argument with Lori.

* * *

Lincoln stepped into the decently sized bathroom meant for only one person. However, when he tried to close the door behind him, it was forced open.

" _Wha?_ Ronnie Anne! What are you doing? This is the men's room!" He gawked. He watched as the black haired girl closed and locked the door behind herself.

"I know, Lame-o! I just wanted to talk to you with some privacy," Ronnie Anne insisted to calm him down, not wanting them to get any attention drawn their way. Two teenagers alone in public clearly trying to get privacy already looked eerie, but two teenagers behind locked doors looked even weirder.

"You couldn't wait until after the car ride?" the lone Loud boy asked, uncomfortable in this situation.

"Probably. But I wanted to tell you as soon as I could… It's about Lynn," the Santiago girl tried to get him to relax, but she knew he had a minor anxiety issue that seemed to worsen with each passing year.

"What about her?" he already did not like where this was going. He always sensed some weird tension between his girlfriend and sports loving sister, but he had hoped this was just his imagination.

"You haven't noticed? She's been eyeing me like I threatened her, or you. I swear, she scowls every time we're talking to each other. Honestly, I think she was hoping I'd fail the test," Ronnie Anne began trying to word things gently since she did not want to go jumping to conclusions and making her boyfriend's stress even worse than it was now.

"Of course I noticed. You know I really can't take an eye off any of my sisters longer than five minutes without them causing trouble," Lincoln nodded. He was basically a master of observation due to him living in a house of thirteen. He kept an eye out for even the littlest of situations to try and deal with them. He had grown a set of eyes in the back of his head like an untrusting parent.

"…But what do you want me to do about it?"

"I don't know," Ronnie Anne answered, "But I'm not feeling safe around her… I think she's jealous."

"What's there to be jealous of? I don't have anything she'd want…" Lincoln scratched his head, even more confused. It wouldn't be the first time his family was jealous of him, but normally he could tell why at least.

" _Oh,_ _por el amor de…_ Not jealous of you, Lame-o! I think she's jealous of me for dating you!" Ronnie Anne came out and say it, she hated beating around the bush this much.

"Uhhhh… Repeat that?" Lincoln stared as he weakly requested, looking ready to bash his head against the nearest wall to try and wake himself up from what he was beginning to believe was a nightmare.

"Sorry Lincoln… I think Lynn's in love with you… that's the only reason I can think of for her actin' like this."

"Ar-are you sure it isn't because of the times you beat her in soccer?" Lincoln tried to find an alternative, but his girlfriend was not blaming him for it. He looked ready to faint like his father to shocking news.

"You mean the times where she got distracted because you were the goalie?" Ronnie Anne reminded him. The teenage boy could feel his heart sinking into his stomach in fear.

" _I didn't think it was possible for me to hate myself more than I already did…_ " Lincoln murmured, beyond concerned. All those times he spent wrestling Lynn felt more than awkward, much like the times their family had to share the shower. Thinking about either made him tremble in fear.

"Are you seriously blaming yourself for this?" Ronnie Anne asked in disbelief.

"No, of course not! But… I had to do something to get her to be attracted to me… _right…?_ " the bucktoothed boy stammered, almost at the midst of a panic attack. She went over and sat beside him on the floor. She felt bad for causing this, but she had to tell him eventually.

"You didn't try to even woe me. I'm the one that had to show how I felt. Remember?" Ronnie Anne tried to make him recall those few years back in school where she, as a bully, would hit him playfully, throw food at him and even stick him in a locker.

" _…and how many times I hurt our relationship,_ " Lincoln nodded. His immaturity back then had nearly ended their relationship several times. He knew that Bobby had advised Ronnie Anne to be upfront and straightforward with her feelings in the first place, but Ronnie Anne took those words and went overboard, thus becoming a bully.

"I wasn't too bright back then either, Lame-o… But do you want to guess why you attracted me?" she offered, putting an arm around him to give a mostly gentle hug.

"Because I'm a good punching bag?" he tried to guess, but could tell that was the wrong answer by her angry look.

"Not exactly… you're just so cute. Plus there's that giant heart you have for trying to help others no matter how bad it goes," Ronnie Anne explained. She found all his charms to be adorable and outweighing his negatives. "But you need to really start putting yourself before others sometimes. Your sisters'll take advantage of your selflessness and hurt you otherwise."

"I know… _They already have a few times..._ " Lincoln sighed, holding his head, "I won't let Lynn do anything. You don't have to worry."

The Santiago girl smiled. "Here. I know something that'll make you feel better."

She leaned over to him. Lincoln let a smile appear and leaned toward her. The two began to exchange a passionate embrace. Very soon after, their lips locked. Lincoln was happy to enjoy this moment with her. He wished it could last a lot longer than it would, but he knew it was only a matter of time until one of their family members came looking for them.

" _Haah… Wow…_ That was great," Lincoln brightly smiled when the two stopped kissing.

"You've gotten a lot better at kissing since we first started dating. That's for sure," Ronnie Anne grinned while trying to get her breath back, "This camping trip'll be great for us. But I've gotta make sure you're able to relax, too."

They then heard a knocking on the bathroom door that startled them.

"Lincoln! We're all done eating. Are you okay?" Leni spoke up through the door. Lincoln could see Ronnie Anne already going for the window to make a subtle return from the girls' bathroom so they would not have any suspicion on them.

"I'm fine, Leni. I got distracted texting," Lincoln lied while getting up to leave the bathroom. Once they got home, they had to get packed and ready for tomorrow morning.

 _"Now I have to keep an eye on Lynn, **AND** Chandler… How come things are getting so much harder every passing minute…?"_ Lincoln thought to himself, but tried to not let himself be too worried. Yet, he remained anxious.

Bobby and Ronnie Anne went on their own way and let the Loud family head back home. The Santiagos promised they would see them first thing in the morning. Bobby at least was going to be there for his little sister's departure.

* * *

The car ride back home was quiet in Vanzilla. Everybody was more interested with their own internal thoughts, some trying to look forward to tomorrow. Lincoln however did make a prominent order to have Lynn sit in the passenger seat this time when ordering his sisters to their seats. When she asked him why, he lied and claimed because it seemed fair. Lincoln was going to try and be as subtly distant as he could.

* * *

In the Loud house, Lynn Sr was carrying another box downstairs, groaning as he rested it down.

"Gosh… I thought out of everything in my body, my back would be the strongest part about me…" Lynn Sr wiped some sweat off his forehead. There were several large boxes stacked on top of each other.

"Well, that's what happens when you fall off the roof so many times," Rita came downstairs with hopefully the last of the boxes. She dropped it on top of the others. To take their minds off the stress of the last week, they had spent today cleaning out their closet and deciding what would be donated to charity. Nearly everything seemed to be going to someone in need now. The Loud parents had a mostly clean and empty closet at this minute.

"How do you think they did on the test…?" she then asked. The elder sisters had told their parents the plan to try and take the test as well so they could go with Lincoln, while leaving out the part about planning to try and cheat. The Loud parents saw it as nothing but supportive, so they gladly gave their consent to them. They knew how awkward it would be if Lincoln was the only one to fail the test and everyone else passed.

"I don't know, honey, if I want to hope that they did good or not…" Lynn Sr was still not for this idea of letting his children be summer camp counselors, but he had agreed that this test was to decide for them, since they both had strong biases for and against it.

"Remember what you told Lynn when she was young and started taking up sports? I think it fits right now," Rita asked while she helped her husband straighten his back. With one hard push and a loud crack, the Loud father gasped in pain, but he felt better in seconds.

"Thanks… I feel like I just got five more years back in my spine," Lynn Sr lightly laughed before focusing back on recalling what he told Lynn Jr, "A lot of the time, it's better to hope you're wrong than assume you're right… Is that the one you're thinking of?"

His wife nodded. They had taught Lynn Jr that lesson when she accused so many people of cheating during her many sports games, so much so that it simply got ridiculous.

"Exactly! I'm still amazed that most of our kids fit the requirements for the camp," Rita stated, recalling her and her husband signing up some of the younger family members a few days ago after they had talked with them about it first.

"You're right about that… Maybe we really have failed as parents," Lynn Sr rubbed his balding head. His wife did not know how to reply, but they learned with Lori that mistakes were inevitable. All they could do was try to minimize them. Sadly they doubted they did it well.

"I'm hoping Lincoln proves me wrong. It'd be nice to see our boy come back more of a man… and more like his old self," Lynn Sr expressed his hopes, but still felt like therapy would be a good option. He would bring it up to his wife again, but she shot the idea down so fast that he saw no point currently.

"We'll figure out how to spend time with everyone equally while they're gone," Rita claimed, still feeling bad for neglecting some of their family, even if some insisted they did not want that much. They knew most people craved some form of attention. The Loud mother had faith that their son at least could pass the test.

"I'm trying not to imagine it… Not being able to talk to them more than once a week… worried about if they're doing okay every night or if they're too hot or cold…" Lynn Sr held his head. His worries mainly came from his past experiences at summer camps. The hot time of year surprisingly tended to get much cooler at night.

"Don't worry, dear. They're strong enough to handle something like this," Rita hugged her husband. The rest of the family was all upstairs trying to distract themselves from the insetting fear for their brother's well being.

" _ **Mom! Dad!**_ " they heard the door fly open and saw Lincoln rushing into the house, startling his parents.

"Whoa, champ!" the Loud father raised his hands, motioning him to calm down.

"Wow! You're even faster than Lynn now," the Loud mother added in surprise. They could see a bright expression on their only son's face.

"I passed the test!" Lincoln ignored their comments, wanting to focus on the good news, especially after that scary revelation that his girlfriend had shared with him earlier.

"Well that's… that's great son!" Lynn Sr forced his happiness, already sensing his wife's cockiness appearing from how correct she was.

"…You were hoping I'd fail, weren't you?" Lincoln could read his dad's lying face very easily, just like the one and only time he forgot his and Rita's anniversary, a scary day that the Loud siblings barely saved their dad from.

" _What?_ Son, don't be ridiculous…" Lynn Sr stopped himself when he saw their son's joy gradually fade from his face.

"…I won't lie, son. I hoped for you to change your mind, but that doesn't mean I wanted you to quit. I just think that you need to put yourself before others sometimes," the balding man hated to lie since he thought that would make things worse. His true words seemed to be slightly reassuring to their son.

"This house gets so much weirder without even one of my babies being in it for even one day…" Rita exclaimed, not denying her sadness that would come for missing Lincoln, "But I know you're trying to help others. I just have to accept that my baby boy is growing up."

"I wasn't the only one to pass. Lynn, Leni and Luan did too," Lincoln stated. He had no plans of telling his parents about what he discovered about Lynn Jr. He just hoped that this would be one giant misunderstanding.

"Maybe I can start putting in more time at work… Or finding a new hobby." Lynn Sr murmured, tapping his chin. With a decent amount of their family gone, there would be less to come home to, and a distraction was appreciative as well as needed.

"Well, off to start packing. I'll be down for dinner! Thanks again for letting me do this mom and dad," Lincoln hugged his parents before he darted off upstairs, not even giving them a chance to respond.

"Ahh… If only we could get that kind of enthusiasm from half of the girls," Lynn Sr jokingly said. His wife stifled a giggle. The rest of the sisters that had left with Lincoln soon came inside.

"Welcome home, girls! I heard some of you passed the test! Congratulations," Rita chimed. Luna, however, slumped past them without a word to get upstairs.

"She's had a rough day… apologies," Lisa explained.

"Where's Lincoln?" Lori questioned, "He dove out of the car before the van even stopped."

"He's upstairs packing… I'm glad you girls are going to help him with what he wants to do," Rita exclaimed, but knew that they had their ulterior motive for going to make sure he was alright.

"Well, he needs our help… we owe him, you know," Luan said, trying to resist making a pun.

"Girls…" Lynn Sr sighed, watching Lynn Jr leave to go to her room to get ready, Lisa heading off to check up on a few experiments she had left without any monitoring, having not much to say on matters.

"Lori punched someone by the way," Leni informed their parents.

" **Leni!** " the oldest Loud sister glared to her, making her dart behind their parents in fear.

"What? Lori! I thought we taught you to use your words instead of your fists!" Rita scolded.

"Well, sorry," Lori retorted, "She called me a leeching gold digger and called my siblings slaves. I'm not exactly going to let someone walk away after talking bad about my family."

"Ugh… I miss when the most we had to worry about with you was explaining puberty," Lynn Sr did not know how to respond. There was no justification for assaulting someone in his eyes unless it was in self defense, but he could understand why Lori snapped.

" _Just…_ Go to your room, Lori. You're grounded this weekend," Rita pointed to the staircase.

"Thanks mom," Lori smiled and left to go to her and Leni's room, glad to be mostly off the hook. Not that she had any qualms about landing the fist of vengeance on Carol.

"Well, we better go start getting ready," Luan hummed, excitedly skipping off.

"Leni, before you go, can I ask you something?" Rita asked her.

"Sure mom! What is it?" Leni was eager to try and be of help, even if half the time when she tried to be helpful it went wrong.

"Was Lincoln alright today…? Was he acting like himself?" Rita had a pleading expression on her face. Lynn Sr nodded in agreement with her worries.

" _No…_ we tried to make him happy, we offered him the best seat in the van, but he kept telling us he hadn't earned it… I don't get what turning down the best seat has to do with any of it," Leni mused. She was going partially crazy because of it. "He talks about himself like he does nothing but burden us and… And I can't stand to hear him talking about himself like he's garbage! It really makes me just want to hug him and let him cry on my shoulder..."

"He really does sound bad…" Lynn Sr sighed to Leni, "If he isn't better after all this, then we'll start looking into getting professional help."

"But remember. Try and give him some space, but be there when he needs you. This camp is about helping everyone. Not just your baby brother," Rita reminded Leni, she nodded in understanding. The fashion designer would make sure the rest of their family members knew that as well. She headed off to begin packing her things for tomorrow.

"Maybe we also should have told them that some of the younger kids are going to this camp, too?" Lynn Sr questioned his wife.

"Oh dear…" it had slipped out of her mind. Rita began nervously sweating.

" _We'll… let them figure it out for themselves in the morning._ "


	7. Goodbyes

Most of the Loud house was up very early this morning. Since nearly half of the family were leaving, they all decided to wake up early to go with them to say goodbye.

" _Are we there yet?_ " Lana asked during the drive.

"We'll be there soon. Lana," Rita replied. The family van was on its way to the edge of Royal Woods. Despite their best efforts, they could not get Luna to get out of bed. She was still distraught over the whole ordeal around taking and failing the test, Sam and Lincoln scolding her hurt her a lot.

"I bet you're all excited, huh?" Lynn Sr rhetorically said. Lincoln especially looked ready to explode with joy, but his sisters were so intent on making sure he stayed happy that Lynn Jr wound up fighting their only brother for the worst seat in the van. Or rather he tried to take it and she kicked him out of it. He brushed it off surprisingly easily.

"It'll be like that time I went to cheer up the oncology wing at the hospital… I think that was around when Lily was first born," Luan was more than happy to help people. A lot of those young kids suffering from cancer she had met before had came and personally thanked her once they had began recovering, it was their way of showing thanks for cheering them up.

"I'm just hoping I can actually help them," Leni twiddled her thumbs nervously. She never really had much confidence in herself outside of fashion, but she hoped she could be useful at this camp.

"I'll make them get fit if they need it! And I'll make sure Lincoln gets some more muscle, too," Lynn commented. Her only brother felt uncomfortable, even though he was a whole row of seats ahead of his slightly older sister.

"I'm going to make sure I can help them all! …Though I think I need to make sure Chandler's okay first," Lincoln scratched his head, still partially worried for his fellow counselor. But then he was hoping to be proven wrong a lot with everything lately.

"Don't worry, Lincoln. I'm sure you'll do great," Lori patted her little brother's head.

"Remember to take care of yourself. Those kids'll be depending on you," Lynn Sr stated, thinking talking was the best way to kill time for the drive.

"Are you okay, Lily?" Lincoln looked over to his baby sister who wore the cub hoody that she loved. Lily was trying to stay happy, but she looked in dire need of cheering up.

" _I'll mwiss wou…_ " the littlest Loud whimpered and hugged him. Lincoln sighed, reaching down and soothing her head, brushing her blonde hair a little.

"Don't worry Lily. We'll be back before you know it… Tell you what, while I'm gone you can have my room."

" _ **What?!**_ "

" **Oh, come on…** "

" _That's unfair…_ "

"It's his room. He can choose what to do with it! Besides, it isn't like it's forever. It's just for nearly three months," Lori made all the younger sisters quiet down. This seemed to cheer Lily up a lot, but she buried her face into Lincoln's chest and whimpered. Lincoln rubbed her back, coddling her, letting Lily do as she pleased if it made her feel better.

"Y'know, some of the younger kids were able to be signed up for this camp …" Lynn Sr started, but was not sure how else to word it.

"So we signed a few that could use actual help up too… Sorry for the surprise. We meant to tell you yesterday, but you zoomed off before we could," Rita finished for her husband. This was somehow not too surprising to the counselors, but it did make them worried.

"But who's got problems bad enough to go to this youth help camp…?" Luan hesitantly asked.

"Lisa's gotten too used to being cooped up all day… and I'm sure all those chemicals she plays with aren't safe to be around constantly," the Loud mother explained.

"I assure you. I handle them perfectly fine," Lisa responded, but the argument seemed to end there. She had no counters for her isolation from the world outside of her room.

"And Lucy has gotten this weird sleepwalking problem where every time she goes to sleep, she winds up standing by someone else's bed until they wake up and scream to wake them both up," Lynn Sr added.

"I think I got possessed when doing a new ritual I had learnt…" Lucy did not deny it. Lincoln held his head, having caught her by his bedside a few times too, but he had assumed it was for some other creepy reason.

"This is going to be easy," Lynn Jr grinned, seeming to welcome the other family members to come along with them.

"Gosh… it's going to be so weird at home…" Lori could not imagine their home with only a few members in it.

"So you're going to tell me that Lana didn't make it for sign up? Come on!" Lola held her head in irritation. She hoped for some time away from her twin, after the times she just made a mess and destroyed her many beautiful toys.

"She seems fine to me," Lynn Sr quirked an eyebrow.

"Yeah! I'm normal," Lana gave a grin, despite her few missing teeth.

"She eats bugs and plays in the mud! That is _**NOT**_ normal!" Lola growled.

"How would sending her to a camp help though….? Isn't there just more bugs and mud there?" Leni unintentionally destroyed Lola's demand.

"Hahah! No need to play _'dirty'_ , Lola!" Luan laughed, not able to resist making a pun. Lola however looked ready to blow a gasket.

"Well, here's the place," Rita called out. They could see a few vehicles parked in a small parking lot. Lincoln noticed a bus nearby, where he saw Ronnie Anne and Clyde talking, and Chandler silently playing with his Gameboy.

* * *

"Hey, Lame-o. It's about time you showed up," Ronnie Anne called when she saw Lincoln get out of Vanzilla and come over to his dearest friends, though they could see Lily still latched onto him. He was carrying her to try and make her feel better.

"I've heard of chick magnets, but this is the first time I've heard of a cub magnet," Clyde smirked, finding Lily's cub clothing adorable, but the mcbride could tell that she was distraught.

"She's taking it really hard, you know?" Lincoln stated, his two bags full of his possessions on his back.

"Makes sense," Clyde nodded.

"Uhuh. So where's all the students?" Lincoln asked, noticing Butch stepping off the back of the bus.

"They're going to be coming to the camp a few days after you guys get there," Butch explained, his fake accent still there,

"It'll give you time to get settled in and organized,"

"Guess that makes sense," Clyde said. He knew they would have trouble escorting a giant group of at least twenty people, when they could be guided in smaller groups while the first prepared for the next.

"You okay, Chandler?" Lincoln asked, Lily still in his arms. He could see Bobby helping load up the counselors bags, who then went to help Lori when he realized the Louds' presence.

" _Nope…_ " Chandler flatly responded, not even looking up to his fellow junior counselor.

"That's what he told us too," Ronnie Anne stated with her hands in her pockets, not entirely sure how else to talk with the freckled boy.

" _So…_ where's your parents? And your friend didn't want to come?" Lincoln continued his questioning, taking a seat on the bench beside him. His back was beginning to hurt with the toddler clung to him and adding a lot more weight than he normally could handle for long periods of time.

"Working, probaby…" Chandler put away the gameboy, "and no, Rusty didn't want to come with me."

"Wait, Rusty?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow, " _Uhh…_ As in Rusty Spokes?"

"Yeah. The one with the weird little brother," the party lover leaned his head back, looking to the sky.

"You two are friends? Dude, you threw a rubber snake at him in class and made him hit his head on a desk!" Clyde was surprised. Rusty was a friend of theirs, mostly Lincoln who had introduced them both. It sounded ridiculous that the bully would know the easily frightened Rusty.

"I remember that everyone was talking about it when it happened… Rusty had to get thirty stitches for the gash, too," Ronnie Anne added. There had been no rhyme or reason behind what Chandler did to scare their schoolmate as well.

"I apologized and talked with him, so he let me stay with him at his place for the last… probably two weeks now," Chandler responded. The mere thought of him apologizing to anybody sounded out of character for him. This was the boy who would gladly toss people aside when they had outlived their usefulness.

"That's… _great?_ " Lincoln had no idea how to reply, though it did make him feel bad for not keeping up with his ginger friend lately. Rusty had been so busy that they never hung out or spent time together. Rusty's little brother still played with Lucy often, but it was all he had heard from the Spokes family recently.

"Just leave me alone, alright?" Chandler got up, "If you want me to say sorry for the gang of idiots I sent after you, fine."

"Wait, I don't care about what you did to me. I'm sure I deserved it," Lincoln's sentence was ignored.

"I'm sorry I sent those brutes after you. I always thought it was hilarious to see you run while idiots chased and barely kept up… It wasn't anymore. But when school starts back up, I won't be doing that anymore... I won't be doing much anymore," Chandler gave as honest an apology as he could. He then headed off to get on the bus, with a very obvious desire to isolate himself.

"Was he a fweind?" Lily asked her older brother, as he and his friends stared in awe at Chandler's micro speech.

" _I…_ do not have a clue, Lily," Lincoln answered, now unsure what to do with Chandler to help. He knew for sure though that the partial school bully was acting just like him.

"Alright, that's the last of it," Sam hummed, hopping off the bus after having helped get the last of the packed bags on board. Carol was hidden from Lori on board of the bus, obviously traumatized after their one sided fight.

"Thanks for helping, Sam," Luan smiled, glad that the rock lover was kind. It was reassuring to know they had such caring people around.

"No problem!… Say, where's Luna?" Sam requested. She wished to see Luna one more time before they left. The many sisters looked apologetic.

"Sam, we're so sorry. We tried to get her to come with us, but she's still torn apart about not being allowed to go with you to help with the camp," Leni explained to the best of her low IQ's ability. Lori did not want to explain how she and Leni even dumped a bucket of cold water on Luna. Such an act surprisingly did not faze the emotionally shattered rocker, and she remained practically glued on her bed.

" _Oh, Luna…_ " Sam held her head and shook it, her blatant disappointment clear.

"We're sorry for Luna acting like… _well…_ " Rita had no idea how to say it politely in front of the other sisters.

"A brat?" Lori chirped.

"Spoiled?"

"Weak?"

"Moronic?"

"Babyish?"

"No, I'm just upset with her because of **_HOW_** she's acting… We're eighteen, right? I thought we've both grown up. We're not supposed to be acting the same way we were nearly four years ago!" Sam huffed, looking to the ground and murmured to herself in self quandary. " _Who have I been hangin' out with…?_ "

"You're not wrong," Lynn Sr apologized, "Luna is acting inexcusably for her age, but she really cares about you, and Lincoln too… Can you do her the favor and make sure her brother is alright? He's going through a lot…"

"He did seem kinda off when he took the test," Sam confessed. She had assumed that he had been having a bad day, but Luna had mentioned him acting weird a few times. She maybe had an idea as to what kind of situation he was going through.

"We're not demanding you do it, but we'd be thankful if you at least took the time to do it for us," Lori added onto the others' plights, though Bobby refused to jump into the conversation also mainly out of fear of saying the wrong thing.

"I'm still worried he's mad with us…" Lola held her head, " _My tea parties are ruined…_ "

"It's going to be so weird at home," Lana added in agreement, rubbing her sisters back.

"Alright, alright, I'll do it," Sam nodded. She knew Luna would probably be begging for the same thing.

"Thank you. Really," Rita was visibly relieved to hear this.

"You can call us and let us know if anything's happened… and I mean that for everyone. Not just Lincoln," Lori stated. She knew counselors also had to abide by the one phone calls a week rule. The eldest Loud sister hoped that having over half of their family at this camp would not drive the others over the edge.

Just then, they saw a small car come pulling up into the parking lot. Lincoln was surprised by the familiar man getting out of the car once it was stopped.

"There you are!" Butch called out. "I was starting to get worried."

"Sorry, sorry! I got lost… a lot, really…" the british accent gave away who the man was.

" ** _Hugh?_** Is that you?!" Lincoln was awestruck. Hugh was known for tutoring those in need of help at tough times in school. He was wearing a pink shirt with a brown jacket on.

"Lincoln Loud? Well I didn't think I'd see you here," Hugh laughed. To Lincoln's surprise, he had even gotten more muscular since they last met.

" **Holy…** " Lori stared, her mouth hung open.

 _"This chump of all people,"_ Bobby bitterly mumbled to himself, his anger boiling from pure jealousy alone.

" _Ohmygosh, it's really him again…_ " Leni felt like fainting. Almost all of the Loud sisters was staring at the tutor. Lily however could not afford to care.

"I'm glad to see you aren't in summer school. How've you been holding up?" Hugh asked the middle Loud child. He had a big heart for always wanting to help others, but he had an issue of obliviousness to his own looks.

"I've been… half and half, really… but what are you doing here?" Lincoln inquired. Butch came over and patted the tutor's back.

"Hugh here is the first one to apply for adult counselor. He literally aced the test with a hundred percent. Turning down someone with this much experience and heart to help others, would be the dumbest move ever," Butch elaborated. The two almost seemed like close friends ever since they first met.

"Can't say he isn't good for the job," Ronnie Anne agreed. She had to have him tutor her once or twice before. Hugh always seemed to know the perfect ways to help out someone no matter what.

"I think he's great for this job, too," Leni smiled, coming over with Luan, but the tutor took steps away from them.

" _Uh…_ sorry, but after the last meeting, I've gotten a lot more aware of our… _incident,_ " Hugh started, looking apologetic. Lincoln understood. Most of his sisters harassed his tutor the last time he was at their house, getting in the way of his education entirely.

"Maybe you should _'teach'_ us what you mean," Luan grinned. Butch had a bad feeling already.

"I'm saying if you don't let me focus on helping these kids, I'm not going to be happy… I don't even want to imagine getting a restraining order," Hugh simply finished. He wanted to focus on his job and nothing more. He knew now that the distractions with Lincoln's sisters hurt tutoring him.

" _Aw…_ " Leni sighed, "Alright, sorry."

"Guess I better show some self _'restraint'_ then," Luan giggled, despite the many groans.

"I'll make sure nothing happens, Hugh," Lincoln reassured his former tutor, "I'm a counselor myself, after all."

"It'll be nice having someone like you there to help. You've always had an honest heart… at least to me," Hugh patted the teenage boy's head before he went to get his bags, butch following along to help.

"Looks like we'll be leaving soon… I'll get out of your ways," Clyde told his best friends, wanting to let them say goodbye to their families. He already said goodbye to his fathers and insisted they should stay behind. Clyde tended to get too emotional with goodbyes, and made it hard to get going.

"Thanks, Clyde," Lincoln told his best friend with a bucktoothed smile.

"I appreciate it," Ronnie Anne added. She may not get along too well with him, but she still saw Clyde as a good friend. They let him go get seated on the bus.

"Thanks for giving me rides, Bobby," the Santiago girl thanked her older brother for the first thing in mind. There was not much else the two had done together lately to be thankful for.

"It's nothing, Ronnie Anne. I'm happy to see you do something for summer instead of laying around being lazy," Bobby stated. Each summer went with him working more and his sister being bored. He gave her a hug, Ronnie Anne sighed and begrudgingly returned it.

"We're sorry that Luna didn't say goodbye," Lynn Sr apologized to his children turned counselors. Luna would not even say goodbye to them this morning before they left the house, but that could be because of the failed attempts to wake her up irritating her.

"She'll get over it," Lynn shrugged it off, not really caring for it.

"I can't feel too bad about it… She wasn't really trying to come help out at the camp," Lincoln added, still not hiding his disappointment in his family from his older sisters. They all still felt terrible for it.

"You make sure to call us once a week. Alright?" Lori requested.

"Alright. I'll be sure to put that to use," he nodded.

"I hope Lisa and Lucy like it at camp… Guess we'll know when they come in a few days," Luan was more than happy simply knowing a lot of her family still was going to be around.

"It won't be the same without any of you around," Lola sighed, wishing she could have come with them, too.

"You guys better take care of yourselves, too," Lana insisted. She would be mad if they were ignoring their own problems while trying to help the kids get past their own.

"Don't worry, we will," Lynn reassured.

"It'll be interesting to be in a changed environment," Lisa said, but she still was not fully excited for this experience either.

"I'm just glad we have something to do this summer," Lucy claimed. Usually she spent her summers trying to decide what to do for summer. Lily gave a small wave while clinging to their mother's leg, too upset to speak without choking on her words or sobs.

"Oh, it's going to be so strange without so many of my babies home," Rita gave the four children a tight hug. Barely seconds after, the rest of the family decided to join in.

"Don't worry, mom. We'll be fine. I'll make sure of it," Leni giggled, enjoying the hug.

"I'll make sure, too!" Lynn grinned.

"Me too," Luan nodded.

"And I'll make sure they don't go overboard," Lincoln exhaled.

"Alright! We're ready to go," the bus horn sounded and Butch called out. They had a long drive and an even longer hike to go in order to get to this camp.

"Well. It's time to get going. Come on, Lame-o," Ronnie Anne broke her embrace with Bobby before heading toward the bus to get on with the others.

"Bye! Take care!"

"We'll see you soon!"

"You do your best!"

"Take care everyone!"

" _Bwye bwye…_ "

The Loud family watched as Leni, Luan, Lynn and Lincoln boarded the bus. After a few short moments, the door closed, and the bus began to leave. The remaining Loud family members watched until the bus was gone from their vision.

"What should we do now…?" Rita asked her husband. Bobby had already wandered off on his own already, feeling a lot lonelier already without Ronnie Anne around.

"I guess we just go home and help Lisa and Lucy get ready, then we can take it easy a bit." Lynn Sr offered, everyone agreed with the idea of just relaxing for now.

 _ **"I sure hope they'll be alright..."**_


	8. A Night In The Woods

The bus ride outside of Royal Woods felt like it took ages. They had been riding for four hours already. The time was on the verge of becoming one in the afternoon, but it felt like it had been taking a lot longer.

"I've never been on a bus with this much space before," Lincoln sat on the rear end of the bus where there was two long L shaped seats on each side of the emergency exit of a door.

"Yeah, as long as the overhead net doesn't break," Ronnie Anne pointed up to the luggage above their heads that the many counselors had brought. There was a lot more baggage than there was meant to be it appeared.

"Got any fours?" Clyde chirped while the bus shook a little from another small bump in the road.

"Nope," Lincoln shook his head. Clyde drew another card. The trio of friends were playing cards in the back, while everyone else mostly kept to themselves during the ride.

"Least everyone seems to get along so far," he commented to his close friends. Leni was talking with Carol, but the homecoming queen seemed to be acting more like she was afraid of the fashion designer. Chandler sat alone, listening to music from an odd looking playing device.

"I didn't know Leni could be as scary as Lori," Ronnie Anne laughed, enjoying the slight timid nature that Carol had adopted from that one mere fight with Lori.

" _She can be a lot scarier…_ " Lincoln murmured. He and Leni both had a rare trait that if they were pushed past their breaking point by a long shot, their anger easily surpassed Lori's. They had a lot more control than the oldest Loud did. Ronnie Anne and Clyde had seen it once each, they never ever wanted to see it again as long as they lived.

"At least Lynn isn't throwing anything at us," Clyde was more relieved that his glasses were not at risk of being broken again. Lynn and Luan both were sleeping, leaned on each other. They were not morning types. Sam currently played her drumsticks against the back of one of the seats and occasionally the other items scattered around her.

"It should only be another hour before we get to our destination," Butch called out to those that cared to listen, though he was simply focused on driving.

"Hey, Butch. How long is the hike up to Leaf Crown Lake?" Hugh decided to pull himself away from his book about medicine to ask something. A lot of them were wondering this. They would have to hike a good distance, but they wondered if it really would take days.

"Depends on yourselves…" Butch answered, "my personal record is three days, but I think you guys are fit enough to not need nearly as much rest as I did."

"Three days of walking… I already feel exhausted imagining just walking for two days," Clyde confessed, doubting that their youth would help speed the hiking process along.

"Are you going to lead us there?" Leni asked. The Loud family had been camping before, but they usually had cabins to return to rather than tents or outright nothing. This hike would make them have to just find the best area to settle down when late night set in.

"Sorry, Miss Loud, but you're all on your own, I have to make sure those kids make it safely once they come… That and this bus is a rental. I'd rather not miss the return date," Butch laughed. The second oldest Loud sister sighed, understanding that the younger children would need the help far more than them.

"We have a few map copies that should help us along," Carol meekly pulled one of the maps out from her bag. There were four maps in total, two in the care of the junior counselors and two in possession of the adult counselors. The extra copies were in case of separation or those more determined to hike farther than the other group.

"Really? Do you think I can carry it?" Leni reached a hand toward Carol. The map was shoved into the fashion designer's arms.

"Ye-yes yes! Please take it!" Carol shrunk into the corner of her seat, shaking.

"Aw! You're really nice," Leni smiled, oblivious to the fear her fellow counselor was experiencing. Lori made a terrifying impression that if any of her family were treated poorly, Carol would get a lot worse than a black eye and a concussion.

"Hey Chandler, do you want to play with us?" Lincoln offered. No answer. He doubted he did not hear him as he knew the music Chandler was listening to was not that Loud.

"He must really hate us," Clyde spoke, not sure what could be bothering their fellow school mate, but it sure seemed like he hated the world right now. Ronnie Anne was avoiding making the statement that Chandler was acting a lot more like Lincoln than they probably knew.

"I don't think he hates anybody right now… at least anyone but himself," Ronnie Anne suggested. Her comment confused her boyfriend and their close friend. Chandler had acted normal up until the last few weeks, it made the puzzle all the more confusing.

"Well, we need to do something to help him. We'd be down someone from the get-go otherwise," Clyde exclaimed, thinking nine instead of ten counselors before they even had to take care of any kids was a terrible start to these near three months.

"I'll try and talk to him sometime, but maybe all he needs is to get out into nature," Lincoln tried to reassure them. The immense similarities he shared with Chandler however were daunting, Lincoln still had yet to realize this.

"Let's just enjoy the ride," Lincoln sighed and leaned against his seat, "We might never have this much space on a bus again anyway."

* * *

It was four in the afternoon when the bus finally reached its destination. Everyone was asleep, trying to catch up on the extra slumber they had missed out on due to having to wake up so early this morning.

" **We're here!** " Butch loudly called out, waking up nearly everyone. Lincoln lay asleep on his side with his head on his girlfriend's lap, while she rested against the window of the bus, drooling but peacefully sleeping away.

" _Aww!_ Those two are so adorable," Leni cooed, feeling bad that she had to wake them up. Everyone else meanwhile went to begin unloading their luggage from the bus. Lynn wanted to go yank Lincoln out and lie that she just wanted him to help them sooner, but she resisted her impulses.

* * *

After a few minutes, everyone was awake and all the bags had been unloaded from the bus and rested on a pile of varying shapes and sizes.

"Who brought all the extra stuff?" Lincoln questioned, somewhat tiredly. Everyone denied bringing anything beyond the bare essentials necessary.

"What? You think I packed my drums?" Sam jokingly replied.

"I'd have enjoyed using them here," Luan grinned. Butch stepped off the bus, resting the last bag down.

"Those are your first weeks rations… there's a little extra for the hike," Butch claimed. Lincoln understood that much, but he had assumed that it would be a lot less. He figured they were giving them the extra food in case something went wrong early on.

"Is something wrong, Leni?" Hugh noticed her spacing out while staring at the woods surrounding them.

"Oh sorry… I was just listening," Leni apologized to the tutor, not meaning to be acting this weird in front of him.

"Listening to what?" Lynn asked, "There's nothing."

"Yeah! That's totally it! It's so peaceful and quiet out here," Leni hummed. She was being unintentionally deep. Everyone remained quiet themselves to listen to the wind bellowing through the trees and the birds chirping.

"It is nice… I just wish we were able to be brought closer to the camp," Carol verbally dreaded the thought of this hike. They barely had a few hours of sunlight left to top it off.

"If we have to do this hike often, that means we'll have to send people out a few days before the next food delivery to get them back in time…" Clyde realized.

"Come on Clyde. Nothing's stopping us from gathering food on our own too… as long as we do that and don't eat like Lori when she's upset, we should be fine," Lincoln reassured. Everyone did enjoy his optimism, but they all knew it was easier said than done, especially for the kids when they arrived.

"You're getting better at comedy by the day, Lincoln," Luan gave her brother a proud hug. Joking at others' expense was the first of many things she had tried to teach him when he was younger.

"Okay, I have to tell you all several things you need to know about this camp," Butch ordered them all to gather around so they could hear him.

"Is it about bears?" Lynn asked. She had enough bad experiences with bears from their family camping trips to last a lifetime.

" _ **No!**_ Well, I mean that was going to be one of the things… There are wildlife around, but you guys have a building dedicated to storing the food in and the door should be sturdy enough to handle any bears trying to break in," Butch answered. Most of them knew that if bears had to work harder than usual to get food, they would give up faster.

"The first thing is; there are only six cabins not counting the dining hall."

"So that means we have to share space, right?" Sam guessed.

"Yup! The counselors get three cabins and the students attending get three as well… so you all are going to have to decide how to split it up and who sleeps in the same cabin," Butch exclaimed. This was the primary reason he needed counselors that got along well with each other. He knew too many people that hated each other, with the possibility of sharing a cabin would end disastrously.

"So… that means one of our groups is going to have a fourth in their cabin?" Chandler asked. The last time he checked, three times three didn't equal ten, but he never had been fond of math. He traded the smart kids party invitations to do that for him normally.

"Again, that's all up to you guys to decide on," the bus driver apologized. They knew that they had to handle a lot on their own. This was one of the easier tasks. "There's also a fair bit of cooking supplies with the rest of your rations in case you want to try and get creative."

"Cooking, huh? Maybe I could make a special dish when the campers come to welcome them," Hugh smiled, already making plans in his head.

"This'll take the meaning of _'cookout'_ to a whole new level," Luan grinned, despite the groans.

"But you guys need to know that you aren't completely vulnerable," Butch then warned, but also assured, "There _**IS**_ two things you have to protect yourselves with in the event of an emergency, one being for more dangerous situations than the other."

"What do you mean?" Lincoln requested more detail.

"There's a small gun that can shoot tranqs… Two types, either pellets that explode into a mist or the usual tiny darts that inject whatever they hit," Butch started but let out a sigh. They were going to doubt him about this, but he knew they would not be happy with what he was going to announce.

"In the event that you're in a rare situation that can't be solved with tranquilizers. There is an actual rifle available."

"Leaving twenty people out in the woods alone with a firearm. What could possibly go wrong?" Chandler sarcastically commented. Some of them were having doubts but agreeing with him as well, it had created a near awkward silence.

"Chandler's got a point… are we ever really going to need a _**REAL**_ gun? There isn't any animal immune to tranquilizers," Lincoln asked. At least if someone missed with a tranquilizer round, it wouldn't risk someone else's life.

"I think the phrase goes, hope for the best, prepare for the worst," Butch answered, the quote he made pretty much summed up Lincoln and his life in a nutshell. "On the off chance there is something or someone dangerous out there you're able to fend them off… the gun can't be touched without the keys."

"Keys?" Ronnie Anne and Lynn both asked, they then looked to each other with raised eyebrows.

"Each one of you has a key and the actual rifle is in a heavy safe… it'd probably take four people as big and buff as Hugh to pick the safe up," Butch finished his long explanation of every noteworthy thing in the camp.

"Well, I guess that's relieving to know," Sam sighed, accepting it and going with the hope and plan phrase that Butch quoted.

"This ten keys thing sounds overkill… What if one counselor is out of the camp using the bathroom or something?" Carol questioned. Butch threw her one of the many bags which she then caught. She reached inside and pulled out a portable radio that had an odd crank on the side.

"You all should be able to communicate with each other with those…," Butch informed them, "Crank it for five minutes and it lasts for ten."

"This seems really impractical," Hugh commented.

" **Hey!** Those were expensive…" Butch huffed, looking disappointed in the reaction those custom made hand radios. He had to drain so much cash into them, just to make sure everyone would not have to rely on batteries too.

"Well, we better get moving. We're burning daylight," Clyde insisted. They all wanted to get there in time.

"You guys take it easy. I'll see you again in a few days," Butch bid them all goodbye, he got back on board the bus. Before they knew it, he was already driving off, perhaps in a hurry to get out of the area.

"I'm guessing that's why people hate to rent cars," Luan chuckled. Lincoln just went to get his bags with the others. They had a long hike to go and a long night to spend in nature before they arrived to Leaf Crown Lake.

* * *

The sun had mostly set in the next three hours. The large group of ten counselors were now wandering through the darkness of the forest. A few of them had flashlights that they were using to keep on the right path.

"What are you doing Lincy?" Leni chirped when she saw a piece of bright blue chalk in Lincoln's hand. He was drawing large arrow marks in some of the trees they passed.

"Hm? Oh. I figured if we're going to have to come back and forth a lot when getting the rations, I'd leave a trail behind just in case," Lincoln said. He only had one free hand at the moment. He and his girlfriend were taking advantage of the darkness and were holding hands with barely a care in the world.

"That's pretty clever," Sam smirked, "Luna wasn't kidding when she told me you were smart."

"I read a lot more for the test than they said I needed to," Lincoln sheepishly confessed, but that extra reading had taught him a lot of small tricks that could be helpful.

"Don't sell yourself short, Lame-o," Ronnie Anne told her boyfriend. She knew how embarrassed he could get when all attention was on him.

"Guess we'll be taking turns with whichever pair of people has to hike back for the food," Lynn tried to change the topic to save her brother from his own shyness of the attention.

"Makes sense to me," Clyde agreed. When it came to a lot of things, taking turns was going to be a norm. There would be plenty of chores to do as counselors as well.

"We've gotten a good distance, but at this point, we're barely even getting any moonlight. How about we set up camp for the night?" Carol requested. She feared their flashlights were not going to last forever. Even with the extra batteries, their lights would dwindle down, and she knew the trees' leaves barely allowed a single ray of moonlight through the branches and leafs.

"Are you sure? I think we could get a lot farther with even just an extra hour of walking," Sam asked for the others' opinions on it. They merely had blankets and sleeping bags that were brought in case of emergencies after all, so either way they were going to be mainly sleeping on the hard ground.

"We're _'burning moonlight'_ after all!" Luan somewhat added. Everyone resisted groaning at her pun.

"We can try and get farther, but we're going to be in complete darkness soon. I'd hate for any of us to be separated… even for a minute," Lincoln claimed, not entirely sure if they had a good option. They were going to have another day of hiking ahead of them after rest no matter how far they went.

"It makes sense to stop now. We have a decent clearing with enough space for us all," Hugh informed them. If there was ever a place to set up a micro campsite, it was the wide open zone. There, animals would be more detoured from approaching their large group without any bushes or plants to hide behind.

"You know we're wasting time talking when we could be spending it either walking or sleeping?" Chandler stabbed his comment into the others' talk. His words confused the others. He was never this proactive. He was usually more than happy to sit back and let everyone else handle the hard work.

"Chandler's right… We can split up. Anyone who wants to stop early can stay behind, and those who want to continue on ahead can keep walking," Lincoln suggested. They had more than enough maps, and they were safe as long as they remained in groups larger than three.

"I guess that makes sense," Leni nodded.

"Sounds good to me."

"Sure."

"That'll work!"

"Guess it'll give us good reason to put these radios to use to check with one another."

"I can't rest until I burn my legs energy out some more anyway."

"So… who's doing what?" Ronnie Anne chirped. Lincoln decided to let everyone else discuss what they wanted to do.

"I want to stop and rest," Carol repeated.

"Like I said, I have trouble sleeping if I don't burn my energy," Lynn apologetically claimed. Her many siblings were more than aware of that. It was why they soundproofed the garage so the sports lover could go crazy without any hesitation to help burn energy.

"I'd like to stay. All these supplies are heavier than they look," Hugh pointed a thumb to the several bags he had on his back. The muscular tutor had simply taken the task of carrying a majority of the rations on his back upon himself.

"I'd like to keep goin'," Clyde held a hand up.

"I'm too tired to make a pun," Luan yawned, "Even so, I'm staying."

"Gotta keep to the beat. I'd like to keep going," Sam declared, boredly twirling her drumstick in her hand.

"I'd like to stay behind… I'm not too good in the dark…" Leni meekly confessed her slight fear of the darkness, despite their many flashlights in their inventory.

"I wanna keep going too," Ronnie Anne stretched, feeling able to still be able to press farther than where they were.

"Sorry, Ronnie Anne, I wanna stay," Lincoln apologized to his girlfriend. He knew it would probably annoy her, but the Santiago girl nodded.

"Okay, _fine…_ "

"I'm sticking behind, too," Chandler declared. After a moment of silence and thought, the middle Loud child's best friend spoke up.

"Alright, so me, Lynn, ronnie Anne and Sam will keep going on while everyone else stays behind. I'll use red chalk to leave our own trail to follow too, just in case," Clyde announced. The group seemed to all agree to this.

"You sure you don't want to come with us, Lincoln?" Lynn looked a little disappointed as she asked him. Ronnie Anne glared intensely at her.

" _N-no_ thanks, Lynn. You guys get going without me…" Lincoln politely turned the offer down, stepping away to help get the sleeping bags ready with the others.

"We'll see you guys later. Use the radio if you need us," Sam waved. After the goodbyes were exchanged, the group split up. The four counselors headed off deeper into the woods. It was almost like even the darkness ate the light of their flashlights. The twigs and leaves crunching beneath their feet sounded for a short time, before seemingly abruptly ending.

"Are you okay, Lincoln? You look like you saw Lucy when she's angry," Luan asked. Seeing her little brother looking like his anxiety had risen by a dozen levels.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright. My mind's just messing with me… Guess I'm not used to this weird sleep schedule," Lincoln reassured. Chandler kept silent as he lay out his sleeping bag.

"Get used to it. You know we're going to be waking up early every day now," Carol reminded him.

"It takes the meaning of _'high noon'_ to a new level," Luan was able to get one more pun out, but everyone was too tired to really groan at it.

"I'll get some food ready for us," Hugh insisted that they should eat before they try and rest.

"That sounds great right now," Carol brushed her hair aside, more than hungry.

"Oh, that'd be great! I haven't even had lunch today!" Leni clapped eagerly.

"We had one large breakfast anyway," Lincoln added. He had not thought about his empty stomach until they said something. Everyone else appeared to have been similar like that.

" _Whatever…_ " Chandler already had a bag of chips taken from his own bag, but he was seated against a tree, eating alone.

"This seems really familiar…" Lincoln murmured. But nodded, not judging his schoolmate. The two Loud sisters however were noticing a lot of similarities. The two scuttled off to the side for a private talk while everyone was distracted.

"Hey, uh, Luan…" Leni whispered.

"Yeah, Leni?"

"Lincoln's been acting a lot like that lately too, hasn't he?"

"Yeah… he just tries to hide it and keep that heart of his going because he doesn't want to upset us,"

"Do you think Chandler caused Lincoln to become like this…?" Leni brought up her main train of poor thought. Her sister considered it for a second but shrugged.

"No clue! Doesn't matter if he did or didn't. They could both be upset about the same thing, but we agreed to give Lincoln space, so…" Luan reminded her elder sister. They trusted Lincoln to get through this on his own. If he or Chandler wanted help, they could come to any of them for it. They were all counselors willing to do their job, and do it right. That included taking care of one another.

* * *

"…And that's how I dunked that jerk in a dumpster!" Ronnie Anne finished telling a story about how she had to deal with another bully on Clyde and Lincoln's behalf as she walked with the others in her half of the group.

"Wow you are ruthless… I like it," Sam complimented her.

"We could've handled it," Clyde blurted.

"Ha! Sorry, but I know you and Lincoln can barely fight…" Ronnie Anne cockily laughed, "That guy would've you two in half."

"It isn't anything special. I would've handled it if Lincoln had told us about it…" Lynn huffed. Ronnie Anne suddenly stopped them all.

"Sam, Clyde, You two go on. We'll catch up," Lincoln's girlfriend spoke up.

"If you just need to use the bathroom, we can wait here for you," Clyde replied, but his close friend shook her head.

"No. I want to talk to Lynn. Privately," Ronnie Anne cast an intimidating glare to him.

"Hoo, boy… Come on little dude. If we don't let them work it out, it'll be ten times worse," Sam knew this waltz and dance to the exact letter. Clyde nodded. They knew to follow the chalk on the trees if they needed to. The group of four split in half. There was a long silence between the sports lover and the Santiago girl as they waited for the other two to be presumably far enough away.

"What is it you wanted to talk with me about?" Lynn broke the everlasting silence.

"I wanted to tell you to stop while you're behind," Ronnie Anne had her hands in her pocket. That expression of pure irritation was written all over her face.

"While I'm behind?" Lynn's eyes narrowed, "What are you talking about?"

"Stop playing dumb. I know you have a thing for Lincoln," the Santiago came straight out and said it. The accusation seemed to make Lynn grow nervous despite trying to keep her composure.

"What are you talking about? O-of course I like my brother. He's always trying his hardest for me… always being so sweet and hard working no matter how bad I've been to him too…" Lynn's voice trailed off.

"You've quit being subtle since me and him started dating. I know that you know, and believe it or not, I can tell when you're trying to kill me with your looks," Ronnie Anne continued her accusation. Despite being aggressive in tone, she acted rather passive in her expressions.

"I…. I just don't think you're good for Lincoln," Lynn admitted.

"Just because I hit his arm jokingly and call him Lame-o doesn't mean I dislike him… but we gotta keep our relationship secret. If we didn't, you idiots would've suffocated us," Ronnie Anne sounded sad by their lack of choice but to keep their relationship secret, from everyone but Bobby, Lori, Clyde and Lynn.

"Not that stuff! You spend half the time at school stuffing things down his pants shoving him into a locker or trying to fight him," Lynn tried to argue, but she was losing confidence in herself. She never felt like this before.

"You mean faking fights with him so he can win some and other people stop messing with him? Or throwing him in lockers to hide him from other really threatening dolts?" Ronnie Anne pressed a finger against the sporty Loud's chest. She could almost feel the Loud's heart racing.

"What's your excuse for yanking his pants down a lot as a ' _joke'_ then?"

"…That's your excuse?" Lynn stared at her, avoiding the question due to there being no good answer.

"I'll make it simple. Just give up. I know I might not express it all the time, but I love Lincoln with all my heart… I also don't think you need me to state the obvious that you're his _**SISTER**_ either!" Ronnie Anne finished her minor tangent, wanting to begin walking to catch up to the others, but her fellow junior counselor chimed up.

"I don't care… What if I don't give up? You're going to beat me down? Because I have a black belt in karate and I am great at kickboxing."

"I'm telling you to stop, because if you don't, you'll just hurt yourself in a way that's a lot worse than any physical pain. So stop being delusional and get past this stupid phase of yours," Ronnie Anne spoke. There was no thoughts of violence on her mind, surprisingly to Lynn. Ronnie Anne knew her relationship was under no threat, but she knew a broken heart could last a lifetime no matter who it was from or done by.

" _Why do you care then…?_ " Lynn questioned. The two began to continue along the path following the red chalk marks that were on the trees, left behind by Clyde.

"Because you're my boyfriend's sister… by default that means I have to at least try to look out for you. Whatever you're feeling for Lincoln is just a phase," Ronnie Anne then ducked under a low branch, her fellow counselor broke the branch down with her growing anger.

"It's not a phase! I-I mean, I thought it was at first too, but it's been getting worse every year!… I can't ignore it any longer…" Lynn looked mortified to say it, but she at least could be truthful with Ronnie Anne if she was this close, "You're right though… I love Lincoln more than just a brother, and I'll try my best to confess to him when I get the nerve. But I won't give up just because you're in the way!"

"Whatever. When you do confess, don't blame me when you get your heart broken… and maybe get sent to another special camp to get yourself some mental help," Lincoln's girlfriend scoffed. The two continued in silence. Both of them had an immense atmosphere of anger and resentment setting in between them. Only the sound of wildlife in the woods filled the air.

 ** _"Unlike you Lynn, I'm three steps ahead."_**


	9. Leaf Crown Lake

It had been two full days since the many teenagers and adults had begun their long hike. After they had regrouped, the ten counselors seemed to be getting along just fine. But Lincoln swore there was an underlying tension somewhere in the group, but he could not figure out where.

"Man… we've been at this for a good while. Are you sure we haven't gotten turned around somewhere?" Clyde asked as they continued the walk. He was still using his red chalk but the stick was barely a stump now.

"We've been following the map from the start… the last landmark we should be looking out for _is…_ " Carol was midway through her sentence before Hugh suddenly stopped and the young woman bumped into his back, the group halting instantly.

"What?" the homecoming queen wondered aloud. The counselors seemed a little surprised at the sight of a tall wooden tower before them. Having clearly been there for decade, it was burnt, some of the wood was broken off and trees had grown around, as well as beneath the base of it, making it even more unstable.

"That's the last landmark," Ronnie Anne nodded, seeing the orange tree symbol with a black shield style outline dangling from the side of the abandoned watchtower. The middle Loud sibling went up and brushed some of the dirt off it.

"Firewatch Tower number three… I'm guessing the last fire this forest had in it somehow involved the watchtower itself," Lincoln gave some light commentary on the damage the tower had sustained. He then noticed Lynn lightly kicking at something on the ground.

"What is it, Lynn?" Leni asked, afraid to see what her younger sister had found. She was easily scared of finding dead animals out here. They had already come across three possums feigning death, each of which equally scared them all.

"An old typewriter. I guess someone got mad and chucked it out the window, back when it was still a real tower," Lynn answered. The typewriter looked as bad as the watchtower. The outdated writing utensil was embedded into the dirt. Even if it did by some miracle still work, it would take a lot of effort to dig up and even more to clean it out.

"I guess we can _'write'_ it off," Luan grinned. Everyone did their best to resist groaning.

"So that means we're here," Chandler announced, making everyone get back on the path the map laid out and continue onward. After another few minutes of walking, they had finally arrived.

* * *

"Wow… This is camp Leaf Crown Lake?" Lincoln was awestruck at the campsite, multiple cabins around with the dining hall and sturdy storage building were nearby. All of it was around the large sized crown lake itself.

"It's… beautiful," Hugh could only say, looking at the water glistening with the sun shining down on it. There was a river running through the crown as well, to form the shape of a band for it. The river was of no real dangerous speed and was easy to walk through, the boulder near the upper half of the lake was certainly noticeable and stuck out.

"We finally made it! I didn't think we ever would," Lincoln declared, excited for this job as a counselor. It made his friends and familly happy to see him overjoyed and acting more like his normal self.

"Jeez, that felt like a journey… hope we didn't waste much food," Sam said, making sure Lincoln didn't go jumping into the lake in his excitement.

"Honestly, we barely ate much outside of late lunches," Hugh assured. Their ration situation was a lot better than they expected already. Nobody was hungry during the hike for anything else other than one meal a day. By the time they were done hiking, it was lights out from exhaustion with no real hunger to satisfy otherwise.

"That's great to hear," Ronnie Anne smiled, already feeling confident in their food management abilities, but they would not be able to really tell until the campers arrived later this week, or next week at the latest.

"So… what now?" Lincoln asked. He had only been thinking about getting here and what to do in case there was an unexpected storm to hit them during their hike to Leaf Crown Lake. He had put no real thought in what they would do once they actually arrived.

"Well there's a lot to do. I doubt anything has been done here but bare maintenance," Carol claimed, tapping her chin, not sure where to start the list off at.

"We have to clean up the cabins. No duh on that. Make sure there aren't any surprises waiting for us in the dining hall, stash the food away and make sure the gun safe is locked," she finished listing everything she could immediately think of off the top of her head. She knew the last instruction especially would make all of them feel better to personally see the locks securely in place. The dining hall did not have as much protection to offer compared to the cabins sturdy doors, so it meant they had to keep the food in the storage building.

"You know," Ronnie Anne butted in, "We first have to decide who's sleeping where and with who."

" _Oh… right…_ We're going to wind up splitting up into three groups, but one group gets a fourth member," Lincoln nodded, scratching his head. Everyone was looking between each other, trying to decide.

"Well I'll bunk up with Luan! And… Hey, I know! Carol, why don't-" Leni chimed up, but the homecoming queen shook her head rapidly, while hiding behind Hugh.

" _ **N-no!**_ … Err, _I-I-I_ mean, no thank you. I'm a… _uh…_ loud snorer! Yeah, that's it! I th-think I'd be better staying with someone else," Carol lied through her teeth, her fear of Leni on her face clear.

"You think about others as much as Lincoln, don't you?" Leni obliviously smiled. "It's really sweet."

"Lori was sweet to you too, Carol… she hurt your teeth like candy," Luan could not help but make the joke. It gained some snickers from the others. Chandler just stared off into the lake, not really caring about the conversation at hand.

"Luan is right! Lori would have been perfect for you to bunk with! You two have so much in common… It's a shame she didn't get a chance to do the test," Leni frowned, wishing their oldest sister was here with them. The fashion lover was still clueless as before about Carol's fears.

" _Help me…!_ " Carol whimpered to the muscular tutor. Hugh had no clue how to respond. He was just tired of having her hide behind him every time Leni tried to converse with her.

"Don't worry. I'll bunk up with you two," Sam volunteered to Leni and Luan. It didn't seem like it would be that big of a deal. Having only some of the Loud family around would be nowhere near as chaotic as it would be if all eleven members were around. Leni and Luan looked more than glad to agree to let the drummer share their sleeping quarters.

"I'll stay with Lame-o," Ronnie Anne chirped with her hand slightly raised.

"I'm with Lincoln and Ronnie Anne. It'd be nice to hang out together more in our down time," Clyde opted in. Lynn looked a bit upset at the thought of being shoved into a different cabin than her brother. However, an idea clicked in her head.

"Hey… since someone is gonna wind up getting stuck with a fourth, why don't I stay with you too, Lincoln?" She offered to her brother, trying her best to hide her sheepishness.

 _"She can't be serious…"_ Ronnie Anne thought, as she stared with a raised eyebrow.

" _Uh…_ I don't know, Ly-Lynn," Lincoln nervously replied, more than aware of her crush on him, but he was more worried about each cabin only housing three beds. It meant whichever group got four people, one of the four would either have to share a bed, or sleep on the floor.

"Come on! You've let me sleep in your room plenty of times when me and Lucy were fighting. This'll be just like that, but with a lot more space," Lynn continued to persist, putting on her best puppy dog face with a quivering lip. Everyone in the Loud family knew Lincoln was weak to that pleading look, they also all gladly used it on him whenever needed. The teenage boy gulped, finding himself out of words.

" _Uh, you… I… Lynn…_ " Lincoln fearfully stammered. Recalling those many times they shared beds raised his anxiety and personal guilt through the roof.

"I'll be the fourth to their group," Chandler decided to chime in, catching his fellow classmates off guard.

"Huh? What makes you want to bunk with us?" Clyde questioned cautiously. Leni and Luan did not like the sound of this either. He acted so similarly like Lincoln, they were afraid they would make each other worse than ever before.

"Because it's better to be with people I at least actually know outside of a dumb test," the party loving teen replied. That honestly was a good reason to most of them. Half of the counselors barely knew the other half outside of their small interactions between each other.

"…Alright, Chandler. We'll let you stay in our cabin," Lincoln agreed without skipping a beat.

" **What!** _But…_ " Lynn looked aggravated and saddened. She was beginning to pick up on how it seemed like her only brother was trying his hardest to avoid direct periods of time alone with her. Finally, after a short time, she gave in. "Fine. I'll stay with Hugh and Carol."

And so, with the group arrangement complete, everyone scattered into their small groups to get their bags put up in their respective cabins.

* * *

"Thanks a lot for the save, Chandler," Ronnie Anne told her schoolmate as they walked through the river's shallow water.

"It's gotten… awkward between me and Lynn now," Lincoln sighed.

"I could tell by the atmosphere," Chandler exclaimed, "I only butted in to help get you out of that."

"You really aren't acting like yourself, Chandler… Honestly, you and Lincoln are acting like twins," Clyde pointed out, no longer beating around the bush with the comparison.

"I appreciate the help," Lincoln spoke, "I know I didn't deserve it, but thanks."

"I owe you a lot for me acting like… a jerk to you all," Chandler partially apologized. From there on things went rather strangely silent. They unpacked their important items. They could all probably call their families later to let them know they had arrived.

* * *

"Well, that's everything done… Now I need to try and find that phone," Lincoln spoke to himself. He walked around the camp alone, after he had finished unpacking his bags, he was trying to find the phone. Butch had told them before that there was a phone somewhere around the camp. Each person could only make one phone call a week unless it was an emergency.

"Okay… if I was a phone that only was supposed to be barely used, where would I be?" He rubbed his chin, trying to think on this. So far, the phone had not been in any of the buildings, and he heavily doubted a phone would be in the bathrooms, showers or dining hall. The Loud boy soon found something a few yards near the river, but he was not certain if it was the phone for the camp.

" _Mhm…_ Should've guessed. That's how they'd keep counselors from abusing the one phone call a week rule," he jiggled the lock in his hand before letting go. Two locks were on the phone box. Lincoln took out the key he had in his pocket, it was clear that it was to make sure counselors did not abuse their power to bend the rules for themselves, it took two keys and therefore two counselors to access the phone.

"Maybe I can use my key in both locks…?" Lincoln thought, having unlocked the top lock. He took his key out, but when the key was removed, the lock closed again with a loud click, much to his annoyance.

"Wow… Butch must've really paid a lot to get this level of security," he was surprised. It seemed the locks could register any of the ten keys the counselors had, but unless one was inserted into each lock, it was impossible to open. He at least felt reassured that the gun would be safe where it was stored, as long as the locks were like this.

"Guess that means I have to go ask someone for their key," Lincoln groaned, annoyed that he had spent the last half hour hunting down the phone and could not even use it.

"You find the phone?" Sam's voice hit his ears. He looked over his shoulder to see her approaching.

"Sam!" Lincoln happily greeted her, "I think I did. You really know good timing!"

"Well," Sam stepped beside him, "I wanted to talk to Luna before I called my family. I figured I could piggyback off your call for the first one… if you don't mind, that is?"

"Sure. I don't mind," the teenage boy smiled, letting the drummer get her key out and insert it into the first lock. Lincoln unlocked the other lock. With both locks opened together, the small door to the box popped wide open, revealing a small phone inside with a rotary dial.

" _What the…_ this thing's ancient," Sam pulled the phone off the receiver. The last time she had seen something like this was in her grandmother's home, and even then it was only for decoration.

" _Guess Butch had to cut corners somewhere…_ " Lincoln murmured, aware that not everything could be expensive. He was suspicious though that this phone was the same as it was a decade ago for this camp. He dialed his home number and waited.

"Hello?" Lola was the first to answer, sounding a little confused by the unknown phone number.

"Hey Lola! It's me," Lincoln cheerfully answered. Sam was laying down on a nearby log, just waiting for her chance to talk to Luna.

"Lincoln! You all got to the camp?" Lola brightly answered. The whole family had still been trying to adjust to not having some of their members around. Knowing that more of them were going to head to this camp as well did little to help that depressing aura that was taking over the Loud house.

"We got here without any trouble…" Lincoln answered, "Well, we're all exhausted, but we have too much to do to rest yet."

"I'm so happy to hear you…! We tried calling your cell phone, Leni and Luan's too, but we got no answer. It was making us worried," Lola sheepishly confessed. They tried to get ahold of them, she did not deny that, despite being told their family would call them when they arrived at the camp.

"Sorry about that, but we turned them off and left our cellphones behind. There isn't any service up here, so we saw no point in bringing them with us when they might get broken," Lincoln explained, feeling bad for not informing his family of this. It had slipped his and the other familial counselors' minds.

"Lola, who are you talking to?" Lana chimed in the background.

" **Shh!** It's Lincoln!" her sister replied.

" _ **Lincoln?!**_ Let me talk to him!" Lana insisted.

"No!" Lola raised her voice, "I'm talking to him first!"

"You've **_ALREADY_** talked to him! It's my turn!"

"No! It's mine!"

" **Mine!** "

" _Mine!_ "

" **Mine!** "

While the two were fighting, Lincoln gave a worried look to Sam. She shrugged, not sure how to handle kids fighting over the phone. There was not much he could say at this point.

"Hewwo…?" his attention was grabbed by a gentle voice.

"Lily? Hey there, how are you doing?" Lincoln warmly greeted his baby sister, guessing she had gotten the phone while their twin sisters were fighting.

"I'm owkay… I mwiss you, Wincown," Lily answered, still trying to get over the sadness in her heart from not having most of their family around. She was missing him the most.

"Don't worry, Lily. We'll all be back before you know it," Lincoln assured the youngest Loud. He could hear the little girl giving the phone over to someone.

" **Hello!?** " Lana eagerly chimed up, hurting her brothers ears slightly.

" _Ouch…_ " Lincoln moaned, "Nice to hear you too, Lana… Where's Lola?"

"I left her hogtied in the bathtub! But who cares about that. How's camp?"

" **LANA, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!** " Lola's fury induced voice sounded from the phone. Nobody paid it any mind.

"It's actually really beautiful here… the only bad thing so far is that unsafe looking burnt lookout tower. I'm guessing thunder did a number on it," Lincoln claimed, not sure if they should consider possibly tearing down that charred tower themselves. He was making note of this to ask Butch about it.

"Really? I wish I could've seen it! That sounds really cool to climb actually! Lisa and Lucy are packing right now. I'm considering trying to hide in one of their bags to come along," Lana explained. The goth and genius were too busy packing to come to the phone right now, but hearing Lana's plan made Lincoln worry.

"Please don't do that, Lana… It's not a good idea. Plus, mom and dad need you there to take care of them. They're going to be really down without all of us home," Lincoln requested. He knew they may not be that old yet, but stress and depression was something best kept away from everybody.

" _W… oh,_ fine… I'd ask them to come to the phone, but they're both still at work," Lana apologized for their parents' absence. The Loud boy expected that much. They did arrive to the camp in the early morning hours. He guessed it was probably barely past eleven in the morning right now.

"What about Lori and Luna? I'd like to talk to them, too," Lincoln requested, giving a small thumbs up to a half-asleep Sam who was still exhausted from all the walking.

"Lori's out with Bobby right now. Something about him being depressed?" Lana replied, sounding confused herself. Lincoln groaned. He had not expected that the Santiago boy would become depressed after his little sister left, or at least this quickly.

"And I'm guessing Luna's still down, too?" Lincoln took a shot in the dark. Sam's hands clasped together while hoping for the best.

"She still is… She's barely done much since you guys left," Lana felt terrible that Luna still was acting this way, but it was nothing they could really do about it.

"Well, can you let Luna know that Sam wants to speak with her?" Lincoln requested.

"I'll try. Hang on a sec'," he heard the phone get put down and some distant footsteps. After a short few minutes, he could hear the phone be picked up again.

"Hello…?" A weak voice answered.

"Luna! Hey, I'm calling to let you know we made it to the camp," Lincoln brightly greeted his rock loving sister.

"That's cool, bro…" Luna sounded as monotone as Lucy usually did.

"Well, _uhh…_ Sam wants to talk to you," Lincoln decided to just forego the conversation. Any other way seemed awkward, it was blatantly clear she did not want to talk to him or anybody right now. He let his older sister's dear friend come over and take the phone.

"I'll meet you with the others," he said as he took his key. Sam nodded, thanking him again as he left, hoping that she could hopefully cheer up Luna.

"Hey, Luna. How are you doing?" Sam greeted her close friend.

"He-hey, Sam. Sorry I didn't make the cut for the test."

"Luna, come on. There's no need to beat yourself up over it. I told you I'd make it up to you once I got back," Sam reminded her, sounding remorseful. It was her telling butch about the relationship the two had that caused Luna to not be accepted after all.

"I hate not being able to help. I feel… I feel like you betrayed me, Sam," Luna claimed. She so desperately wanted to help her brother, and spending time with Sam seemed like nothing more than a perfect bonus. Now she had to sit aside and do nothing.

"I'm not going to lie and say I didn't do anything wrong, but I still think what I did was right," Sam began to slightly scold her friend, "You've been acting like this for the last few days. Come on, Luna. How old are you now? You were able to handle a lot of pressure without breaking before. Why stop now?"

"I'm sorry… _I…_ I just want to help you and my little bro. I'm worried for him. He's so… depressed," Luna claimed, sound as though she barely had the motivation to reply fluently. This response seemed to only irritate her closest friend.

"He literally just tried to talk to you, Luna, and you ignored him until you could talk to me like some spoiled kid… I promised your family that I'd help him the best I can while I'm here. But Luna, look…" Sam took in a deep breath, trying to calm down her irritation, "I didn't care about the lying or about how big your family was, because I care about **_YOU_** that much. The person I like the most is Luna Loud. What happened to her? If you can't get over yourself and find her, we're through."

" **What?!** _But,_ _I-I…_ I understand, Sam… Sorry," Luna sounded apologetic in tone, but she still couldn't get her spirit blazing right now. Sam hoped her message got through.

"I'll talk to you next week. Please don't make me regret all of our time together…" the drummer hung up, huffing out a puff of irritated breath.

"Hey, Sam! We're all done getting unpacked," Luan called out as she came over. She had been sent to round up all the counselors. Sam closed the phone box back and took her key out before pocketing it, watching the locks close up tight.

"Are you okay? You look a bit… _'hung up'_." Luan asked, unable to resist but make that phony pun.

"I'm just at my wit's end... Don't worry, I'll be fine. So, what's going on?" Sam brushed it aside, not caring to dwell on her relationship issues with Luna. Luan did not know if she should pry further.

"Well, we're all getting together in the dining hall," Luan explained, "Now that we're unpacked, we have to decide who's going to handle what."

"Great. Come on," Sam walked on ahead, leaving the comedian behind with a worried look on her face.

"I thought this camp was about helping children, not counselors… I guess doing both will be great though," Luan told herself, shaking the awkwardness off, but that was three counselors with potentially large problems.

"Wait up! I don't want to _'run'_ the moment!" the comedian rushed off to try and catch up for the meeting.

* * *

"Do we have everybody?" Lynn asked.

"I think so," Lincoln chirped.

"Probably," Chandler shrugged, leaned back.

"As far as I can tell," Ronnie Anne said before she took a drink from her water bottle.

"I count eleven people," Leni claimed, looking confused since they were only supposed to have ten counselors, five juniors and five adult counselors.

"Leni… that's a mirror," Hugh coughed, looking to a small mirror hung up off to the side. It was supposed to be a reflective novelty dream catcher.

"Oh! It's really shiny," the fashion lover purred.

"I think we got everyone," Sam shrugged.

"We've all gotten unpacked too," Clyde added.

"Yeup! We're all here!" Luan smiled.

"Let's get this over with," Carol insisted.

"So, our first meeting is about who's going to be managing what, right?" Lincoln questioned. Everyone nodded. That was why they were here, according to those that rounded them up.

"Right. We have our hands full. First off, we need to decide who's going to handle making and managing the activities," Hugh spoke. That was a job for at least two people. The storage building had plenty of equipment for them to use.

"I think Lincoln and Lynn can take care of that," Luan suggested, oblivious to the tension between the two. Their brother instantly felt his fear raise. He gulped, but reluctantly nodded.

" _I-I_ guess we can… it'd be stupid not to put someone with that much sports experience to use," Lincoln agreed, not wanting to alienate Lynn entirely from himself, but he sure would take any opening to bail if he could. Ronnie Anne huffed, aggravated at this.

"I'll help'em too," Clyde volunteered, thinking it would be better to have a third wheel there for his bro. Lincoln was visibly relieved to hear this, Ronnie Anne was visibly thankful too.

"Next up… We need four people to work together to plan out the rations distribution for the first week," Hugh looked for people volunteering to opt into this.

"I'll help, I was good at managing food when I was on my diet," Leni eagerly raised a hand.

"Leni, you thought you were getting fat when your crop top didn't cover your stomach…" Lynn muttered.

"I forgot that…" Leni murmured. That diet had been completely pointless. It was just another case of her low IQ causing trouble for her, but that did not detour her from wanting to help with this.

"I'll help out with it too," Ronnie Anne decided to opt in as well for the sake of it sounding vital.

"I'll help with it too, I guess," Chandler rolled his eyes. He would have to volunteer for one of these tasks anyway, he figured he may as well opt in for the easiest one.

"And I make four," Hugh nodded, grateful that they were doing good so far for a first meeting, he had half expected a violent fight to break out.

"So, what does that leave for us?" Sam questioned, looking to Luan and Carol as she referred to herself and them.

"You three are in charge of getting the other three cabins cleaned up and escorting the kids here," Hugh replied.

"Wait, we have to hike all the way back down there to just hike all the way back up?!" Carol was in awe, wanting to faint at the mere thought of this.

"Don't worry, Carol," Luan patted her back, "We have four days before the campers arrive."

"We can get back in under two days since we know where we're going now," Sam reassured it was not as bad as it seemed, even if it meant they had to leave a few days in advanced, "…as long as the kids aren't too problematic."

"Alright, is everyone okay with the tasks they have?" Lincoln asked the room.

"Yep."

"Yeah."

"I guess."

"Sure am!"

"Definitely."

"Whatever…"

"As ready as my kazoo."

"I think so."

"I'm about as ready as I can be."

"Alright, then. Let's get to work," Lincoln dismissed the meeting, and everyone began to split up into their separate groups to get to work.

"You okay, Lincoln? You look nervous," Lynn questioned her slightly younger brother, the sports lover had a cheerful aura about her now.

"I'll be fine. Just worried about the kids, y'know?" Lincoln chuckled nervously.

"Come on. Let's not get distracted before we even get started on our task," Clyde made them focus on the main task again. The two nodded in agreement. Lincoln took in a deep breath, trying to relax.

 _"I really need to calm down before I have a heart attack…"_


	10. Too Late

_**Authors Note: I just wanted to say thanks, we've hit 6,000 views of this story and I am in awe at how close to 100 reviews it already is. I'm glad you're all enjoying it, sorry that I can't update it more often but I'm trying my best to fight through the hand pain that's recently onset me. But yeah, this is Fallen Pens, dropping out. Thanks again.**_

* * *

It was around three in the morning. Only the insects, mammals, and wind blowing leaves around sounded in the quiet Leaf Crown Lake.

"It's nice to have one of the cabins close to the bathroom," Lincoln stretched, walking in his orange pajamas. He was happier that lines were not going to be an issue during the stay here, as long as everything remained operational.

"Those campers'll be here tomorrow… I hope the others didn't have any trouble," the teenage boy spoke to himself. It was nothing too unusual with him talking to himself. He was worried that those troubled youth campers might be causing trouble for Sam, Carol and Luan. They were supposed to be back sometime tomorrow, but they had no clue when.

 _"Hm? …Is that Chandler?"_ Lincoln wondered when he saw a familiar figure in the distance, it was of someone sitting by the crown shaped lake, his head tilted toward the lake itself, seeming intently focusing on it.

* * *

After a few moments, he approached his fellow junior counselor, his shoes crunching the grass and leaves beneath his feet. There was nothing but silence between them once he stopped moving. It was as if the party loving teen had not noticed his presence, or did not care to acknowledge it.

"How long have you been out here, Chandler? You know we need to be rested up, especially for tomorrow," Lincoln requested to know. They had young kids depending on them, starting tomorrow. He knew tiredness for what probably would be such a draining task was a terrible idea.

" _I dunno…_ maybe two hours?" Chandler shook his head, not caring to keep up with the time. The teenager was trying to make himself feel better with the calm atmosphere beneath the starry sky.

"Heh… it's funny," Lincoln chirped with a small smile on his face, finding this coincidence rather ironic in a sense.

"What is?" Chandler raised an eyebrow, looking to his schoolmate, wondering if he was slightly going insane.

"I was out here last night doing the same thing as you," Lincoln elaborated, "I've been getting anxious, so I come out here thinking it'd help to get some fresh air sometimes."

"I'm guessing that's because you're sharing a bed with Ronnie Anne?" Chandler questioned, reverting his gaze to the lake. Lincoln felt a light red tint appear on his face. Since their cabin had four counselors in it, two people had to share one bed by default. He and Ronnie Anne were the least weird to share a bed out of the four of them.

" _Not exactly…_ But boy, it sure doesn't help," Lincoln took a seat beside the fellow junior counselor. He enjoyed being closer than ever with his girlfriend, but when sleeping together, Ronnie Anne had given him one rule that they had to keep their backs to each other, or he would risk getting booted out of his own bed and onto the cold, wooden floor.

"You two make a good couple…" Chandler half-heartedly replied, not caring about a relationship that was not his own. Chandler was about to let silence take over again. However, Lincoln refused it.

"Do you want to talk about what's on your mind? …if you want to share?" Lincoln extended an ear to hear his troubles.

"Lincoln, why do you care?" Chandler asked, finding it hard to believe that Lincoln really had any interest in the matter, considering the history they shared.

"Because you're my friend. Lori told me that if something was wrong that getting help didn't mean you were weak for needing it… I know a lot of ways to help people, one of the ways being simply talking to them," Lincoln explained to the best of his ability. The other junior counselor did not know how to respond as his friend continued, "That, and… I know you're not acting like yourself, Chandler. I know we've not always seen eye to eye. If anything, it's more been eye to shoe. But you were never the calm kind type before. So, I'll ask again; what happened?"

Chandler just sat in silence for a few seconds, before he took a deep breath.

"Lincoln… have you ever had a big choice in your life…? One that you know once you decide on it you can never go back?" Chandler mused as they both had their feet resting in the water, with their shoes behind them. They could see the beautiful clear sky, as well as the stars and moon reflecting off the water's surface.

"Yeah, dude… I feel like I have to make one of those decisions every other day. I don't want to burden my family… more than I already do," the answering Loud's voice trailed off toward the end of his reply. He felt his own inner sadness forcing its way back to the front of his mind when he had done his best to suppress it.

" _I…_ I had a decision bigger than most to decide on, but I never got a chance to… _but…_ I didn't know until it was too late," Chandlers hands began to claw and grip the grass tightly in his hands.

"Dude?" Lincoln turned his head to him.

" _I was too late…_ _**too late…!**_ " He kept muttering to himself, trying to fight back the tears wanting to escape from his eyes.

"Too late for what…?" Lincoln stared in awe, not wanting to pry, but his semi-friend was not giving any indication that he wanted to avoid this conversation.

"To talk… I was too late to talk, and ever since, I've been wondering what it would've been like if I had been at home, instead of planning for the next party to celebrate school ending for summer," Chandler took a rock and threw it across the lake, watching it bounce nearly to the other side. The party lover seemed to be averting the topic from the main burden in his heart, in a sort of beating around the bush fashion. The Loud had no intention of prying too deep if he wasn't ready. "I never realized it 'til now, Lincoln… how cruel I've been to not just my family, but to nearly every person that I knew... And because I didn't stop, I lost the chance to live my life a different way..."

"Chandler, I'm sure you weren't that bad to any of them. I mean, you threw parties constantly! It made everyone look forward to going to school, and I know your family loved them too," Lincoln tried to assure, but the fellow junior counselor seemed to be more upset at hearing that.

"By throwing parties constantly, I wasted money to make people do my bidding in trade for invites. I was never popular. I just was a rich moron. Now look at me! I'm nothing but a failure! I... Even took _'advantage'_ of someone regularly." Chandler sounded shaken. His anger clearly was not directed toward Lincoln.

"Be glad to know you can make it up to everyone. I'm too far past being able to repay my family for putting up with me," Lincoln remained calm as he reached over and put an arm around his friend. He swore that the Loud house would remain almost tranquil without him.

Chandler bit his lip before burying his face into his hands. "I can make it up to all but one person… and that person never even had a chance to exist. What's the point when I'm going to always wonder what it would've been like… how or what they'd have been… but now I'll never know," the semi bully choked out a sob. Lincoln rubbed his back to comfort him. "Because of this, I swore to never throw another party. I've ruined enough lives, and I deserved what I had happen to me..."

Lincoln had to wonder how someone who couldn't exist was having this much trauma to Chandler. He could not make sense out of any of this. He helped his counselor friend up from the ground. "You might not make the party, but you'll still always be the life of it, Chandler! Come on, we have a lot of people to help tomorrow! You can start making things up to whoever they were, by doing what I'm here to do."

"And what are you doing here then?" Chandler questioned. Lincoln hesitated, rubbing his left arm. The two began to walk back to their cabin as he made the answer.

"I hit a rut in my life, where everything I do and love doing has become boring to me…" Lincoln answered, "I came out here to give my family a break from me, but to also break the rut by helping those that really need it."

"You… have a point," Chandler nodded slowly. It all made sense to him. Those words seemed to inspire him enough to calm his heart down.

"Of course, I do!" Lincoln exclaimed, "Now come on let's get some sleep, we can talk to each other about what's bugging us once the time's right… okay?"

"…Some sleep sounds pretty great right about now," the semi bully gave a nod, gaining a smile on his face from the heart-to-heart they shared.

* * *

Later the next day, most of the counselors were in the dining hall eating lunch. They had done all their tasks available and were simply waiting for the other three counselors to get back with the campers.

"You're looking a little better, Lincoln. Did something happen?" Clyde was seated at a table beside him and Ronnie Anne.

"Hm? Oh… I guess it's because I talked with Chandler, it really helped," Lincoln said. His heart to heart last night with their fellow junior counselor seemed to brighten up them both. Chandler seemed to not be sick of the day and had positive energy emanating from him for once.

"What'd you two talk about?" Ronnie Anne asked her boyfriend.

"Stuff… I don't exactly understand it all myself, but I don't think he's ready to talk about it all himself either," Lincoln pushed his empty plate aside resting his arms on the table. "All I know is, it was bad enough to make him hate parties and himself more than anything…" he mused. He was not going to go divulging every important conversation he had, especially when the person in distress was still evidently reeling from the cause.

"Well I'm glad you two talked, it's nice to see you both happy," Lynn's voice made them turn to her. She stood there with a stack of plates, having gone around gathering them up since it was her turn to clean them. Hugh had done them after breakfast this morning.

"He might actually see you as a friend now," the sports lover knew about parties and the plans her only brother had made, that all wound up going to the wayside several times trying to get invitations, though she felt more cautious than her brother did.

"I sure hope so… we all know those kids'll be relying on us," Lincoln murmured. His anxiety felt high again from simply imagining taking care of his fellow counselors and the campers.

"How went preparing those activities, by the way?" Ronnie Anne threw her plate onto the pile that her rival of this subtle love triangle had in her hands.

"We prepared a lot of small ones, but I'm really proud of the ones Lincoln made, he made one that they can use whenever they feel like it," Clyde explained. Lincoln felt sheepish with the attention on him again.

"All I did was make some cruddy targets and dummies…" Lincoln brushed it aside casually.

"After you found those bows and arrows. You went right to work dulling the arrows and then replacing them with foam balls. You really put in a lot of work, Lincoln. Enjoy some credit," Lynn continued the praise. It was like he focused on something whenever his mind was set on it. When someone was interested, he or she could practice archery without any threat of harming themselves or anyone else.

"I'll do it when I earn it, Lynn… you're acting really eager," Lincoln retorted, feeling nervous from how randomly energetic his sister was acting around him. Ronnie Anne stared with her eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"You never needed to earn anything before… I guess things were a lot easier back then, though," Clyde commented, rubbing the back of his neck. He knew how much best friend felt, but they all knew he was hiding a lot more emotional and mental issues from them than they knew.

"I guess…" Lincoln shrugged, not sure if things were harder or easier years ago.

"Do you feel like you're out of that rut?" Ronnie Anne asked her boyfriend. He nodded with a smile.

"I actually do! I've had trouble getting out of bed in the mornings for the last year, because there was nothing to look forward to. But right now, I feel like I have a lot to look forward to every day!" Lincoln exclaimed. He was not entirely sure why, but being in a rut in life had made him have less and less hope for each day. His family had noticed, but assumed he had simply been having trouble sleeping due to his body going through the usual changes that came with puberty.

"Well that's great! Say Lincoln, you wanna come help me clean the dishes?" Lynn offered. He felt his voice box freeze in his throat. He was more worried about upsetting her. He knew how scary she could get, since half the time she didn't even know her own strength half the time.

"Shouldn't one of us try and radio the others to see if everything's alright?" Clyde cut in. Normally, once a day they tried to radio out to those escorting the campers up to see if things were going alright, but so far, they had not gotten any response due to range issues.

"Yeah! Come on, Lincoln, let's go do that. I'll help find your radio," Ronnie Anne hopped out of her seat, she then grabbed her boyfriend by the back of his shirt and began to drag him along.

" _But I have my radio right here…_ " Lincoln's voice was ignored. His heels scraped the wooden floor as he was dragged out of the dining hall. The young boy swore he saw Lynn cracking one of the plates in her hand as she gripped it in anger.

" _Freaking Ronnie Anne and her freaking strong arming him…"_ the sports addict growled beneath her irritated mumbles.

"Don't you think you're being a little overprotective?" Clyde raised a finger, trying to reason with Lynn since she was not doing much to hide her anger, but she got in his face.

"I'm being _**UNDER-**_ protective right now. And if you start getting in my way too, so help me...!" Lynn's glare was piercing through even his glasses. It felt like his soul was being strangled by her threatening glare.

"Wait, what? Getting in your way of… _Lincoln?_ " Clyde tilted his head confusedly. When Lynn realized she was losing her cool and beginning to take it out on her brother's best friend, she stopped herself.

"Sorry… just worried, you know?" the sports lover half-heartedly apologized before going to get to work cleaning the plates, all but the mostly broken one. Clyde was more relieved that nobody else seemed to notice that unwanted micro-argument.

* * *

Lincoln sat at the steps of one of the cabins. Ronnie Anne sat beside him, holding his radio and turning the crank on the side with steadily increasing speed.

"You're not too good at being subtle, you know," he spoke to her.

"Oh, and you are? You lock up like you got shot with one of those tennis ball arrows," Ronnie Anne retorted. Lincoln knew she was right. Every time one of those moments happened between him and his sibling, he would feel his mind freeze up. He had no clue what to do, as if his brain overrode itself.

"And you look like you're ready to break everything whenever she talks to me," Lincoln countered. Before Ronnie Anne could reply, there was a small snap. She had broken the crank off her boyfriend's radio. She gritted her teeth in fear of his reaction.

"It doesn't look that hard to fix…" Lincoln reassured with a sigh. He took his radio and the crank back before putting them together, making an attempt to fix it.

"I'm only worried about what she'll do to you…" Ronnie Anne did not feel like she had to apologize for anything, but the young boy rolled his eyes.

"You act like she'll rape me, Ronnie Anne… Even then, you sure seem to not have any confidence in me or our relationship," Lincoln claimed, having easily gotten the crank to snap back into place on the radio. He began turning it to continue charging its power.

"I honestly think she'd do it, Lincoln!" Ronnie Anne warned him, "I have plenty of confidence in us and you, but… but she's crazy! Your entire family has some insane side to them!"

"I don't know what to say about that… but Lynn wouldn't do that. She's had her moments and I've deserved whatever bad thing happened to me I'm sure. But you need to relax, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln put an arm on his girlfriend's shoulder. She wanted to hit him after he mentioned deserving punishment, but she let out a long breath, remaining quiet with her gaze affixed on the ground.

"Hello? _Uh…_ Escort group do you copy? Over?" Lincoln spoke into the radio, letting go of the button once he finished his sentence.

"Why are you talking like that?" Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow. Confused by his sudden vocabulary change.

"Sorry, force of habit! Everyone talks like they're teams and say over at the end of everything whenever they're on a radio. It's like an unspoken rule," Lincoln explained, the radio still in his hand. They heard a static noise that hurt their ears.

"Is it dying?" Ronnie Anne asked. Her boyfriend shook his head.

"With how long and fast you cranked it? If what Butch said was true, the power should last for an hour," he doubted the radio was already losing power, but her would not be surprised if Butch had skimped out on the money for the proper parts for the internals of the radios.

" _He…llo?_ Hello, Lincoln? Are you there? Over," Carol chimed in over the radio once the static began to clear. Hearing the adult counselors voice relieved the junior counselor.

" _ **Carol!**_ Hey, it's great to hear from you. We were worried… over," Lincoln spoke with relief in his voice.

"Sorry, we're barely in radio range over here," Carol apologized. The near four days they were gone probably caused a lot of anxiety.

"You forgot to say over… over," he held his head with his hand when realizing what semantics he had accidentally started.

"No, I'm stopping this now. As funny as it'd be to see you lose your mind over one word, I'd rather focus on getting some info," Ronnie Anne took the radio from her boyfriend's hand. Lincoln was glad he was saved from that short mental roller coaster.

"Hey, are you guys there?" Sam asked from her radio.

"Sorry. Was stopping a comedy routine before it could get started," Ronnie Anne chuckled.

"And I missed it? _Aw!_ " Luan sadly spoke, though the Santiago girl and Loud boy could tell that the comedic Loud was cranking the radio as she spoke, judging by the background noise.

"We're almost back to camp. We should be there in maybe under an hour or two," the homecoming queen informed them. The trio that had been sent to walk all the way back down to just come right back sounded exhausted.

"Have the kids given you any trouble?" Lincoln held the radio's button down, letting his girlfriend hold the radio itself. The two decided to share, to simply save her the trouble of having to power up her own radio.

"Nothing but a lot of bathroom breaks, but that was expected with ten kids… the most problematic's been Lisa. She keeps getting sidetracked by rare species of mushrooms or something," Luan explained to the best of her understanding. For some reason, Lincoln half expected Lisa of all people to cause the most trouble.

"Guess she really can't get her head out of her research for two seconds," Lincoln murmured, not sure what else he could say.

" _So…_ " Ronnie Anne smacked her lips, "Any of them stick out? Like are the ones that are **_REALLY_** problematic sticking out?"

"Yes and no…? They all kinda stick out, but the one that sticks out the most is the boy with the pet owl," Sam responded. The junior counselors confusedly looked to each other.

" _Uh…_ repeat that?" Lincoln requested, wondering if they had misheard them.

"One of them has a pet owl! Needless to say, it's making our heads _'turn'_ ," Luan grinned, hearing the many groans.

" _Oooookay_ then…" Ronnie Anne was speechless. It was a matter of seeing for themselves when they arrived.

"Well, we're about to get back to walking. See you guys soon," Sam told them that the break was ending. The radio then resumed to dead silence.

"Alright. We should go gather everyone up to greet the campers," Lincoln put his radio away, standing up and stretching. However, before they could leave, she stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

"Lincoln… you believe what I said, right? I do have confidence in you and our relationship, but I'm scared for you too…" Ronnie Anne asked, still immensely worried about losing him to Lynn, despite how ridiculous it sounded.

"I believe you, Ronnie Anne… But if you don't start relaxing, you might do more harm than good," Lincoln told his girlfriend. The same advice directed toward him many times, with how he had to put himself first before others occasionally. Even if he did not listen it sounded like good advice to give, granted the situation.

"I want to relax, but I just can't. I've never had so many people relying on me before… I don't know how you do it every chance you get," Ronnie Anne sighed, looking apologetic, but her eyes refused to meet with his bucktoothed face. The Loud boy knew she was right about this. His whole family seemingly relied on him a lot.

"I fail a lot and I let them down a lot more, but I try… just remember, I'm here for you every step of the way. We're all here to take care of each other, too, just like we would with the campers," Lincoln took her hand in his. He felt her squeeze his hand tight.

"You're really cheesy Lame-o…" Ronnie Anne gained a weak smile. There was a small pause between the two before she decided to pull him into a kiss. Lincoln smiled, beginning to enjoy this more affectionate side she had been showing lately. He simply returned the passionate embrace.

"Now I feel better! Come on, let's go round everyone up," Ronnie Anne declared once their minor make-out session ended. The two began to head off, still holding hands.

"You're really showing your soft side lately. Is it because of where we are?" Lincoln asked, wondering if she was relaxing that normal guard of hers due to living in nature for the next few months.

"Just shut up and don't ruin the moment," Ronnie Anne sheepishly insisted. Her boyfriend lightly chuckled, guessing that was a yes.

 ** _"I'm glad you're here with me, Ronnie Anne…"_**


	11. Campers Arrival

_**Authors note: Sorry that this might be shorter than usual, but it was either it be this length or it go on for a lot longer than it needed to. I hope you understand. In other news, I have a new story for the OK:KO archive up, check it out if you want something with more action from me. I wanted to just apologize and let you all know why this chapter might be shorter than usual. This is Fallen Pens, dropping out.**_

* * *

The many counselors waited around the Same place they had entered from. They had dubbed it the entrance to Leaf Crown Lake. It made sense then, but now they were aware how awkward it would become if the campers somehow wound up entering from the side or back of the camp.

"I'm not gonna lie, I'm anxious to meet these kids," Hugh confessed, rubbing his head.

"What kind've tutor fears kids?" Chandler questioned, unsure if this was a joke or not.

"There's a difference between how hard it is to teach a kid and how hard it is to help them… I've had my fair share of heart to hearts with some people I've tutored, yeah, but I've never been so blind when it came to it," Hugh explained his main fear. Not knowing anything about these kids and being told that they were going to be helping those on their last chance for the most part did little to help that worry.

"How should we handle them…? I don't want to treat them wrong or be insensitive, but I also don't want it to be like we're treating our sisters better than the rest," Lynn added to the bigger concerns. Lincoln nodded, stuck in the Same boat as her. Having four related family members as counselors for Lisa and Lucy would naturally make the others call bias towards them.

"There's supposed to be ten campers, right?" Ronnie Anne spoke to them, "And there are ten of us. We can each help one on our own or help each other when we need or want to."

"That sounds like a great idea, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln smiled brightly. Whoever they thought they could help best would be the camper they took to start with, at least it would be a good way to start things off.

"I think I see them," Leni said, squinting to try and get a better look at the few dots in the many trees shadows.

"Leni, I think that's just… Oh no, wait, it _**IS**_ them," Clyde was about to correct her, but for once her low IQ had not messed with her eyes. The group could see the three counselors waving to them.

"Hey guys! We're back!" Sam called, leading the medium sized group with them. Carol and Luan were in the back keeping an eye on everybody.

"Sorry, we had a lot of delays," Carol stretched, exhausted.

"Better _'delayed'_ than never!" Luan gained a lot of groans. Some of the campers even looked like they had been tortured by her puns for the last few days. Seven of the counselors looked a little wordless.

"Salutations, my genetic sharing relatives," Lisa gave a small smile, but looked bored.

"Hi," Lucy flatly added. Their family gladly greeted them back, but they were staring at the others. Nearly every one of the kids stood out in some odd way. Some had their problems clearly displayed for all to see, and others seemed to genuinely look normal, for the least part.

"Well… why don't we introduce ourselves?" the second oldest Loud sister suggested. Her fellow counselors nodded, agreeing that it was the best way to break the ice.

" _Okay,_ I'll start… I'm Lincoln Loud, and before you say anything, yes, I know my teeth are big," Lincoln light heartedly joked, but got no response beyond Luan giving a motivating thumbs up.

"I'm Lynn Loud. It's great to meet you! I'll make sure you all get buff by the time you leave here," Lynn opened up with her best intro she could give, flexing to show her partial muscles, despite Hugh outshining her without even needing to flex.

"I'm Hugh _C-…_ My last name is a little inappropriate sounding, so let's stick to just Hugh," the young man sounded apologetic for not sharing his full name, but he could tell all he did now was make the others curious to it.

"I'm Chandler Terrigun. It's nice to meet you," Chandler kept a bright smile on his face, still cleary taking the lone Loud boy's helpful words to heart.

"Clyde McBride's my name. Don't worry, you're in good hands," Clyde tried to be more assuring, acting warm to the young kids. The junior counselors were barely a few years older than them.

"I'm Ronnie Anne Santiago," Ronnie Anne simply said, not wanting to go faking a toothy smile to try and fail at making the kids feel comfortable, she was going to stay herself with a simple smirk.

"I'm Leni Loud and… I don't have a smart intro," Leni kept that honest expression of hers, trying to not let her low IQ be too blatantly obvious. That was all the counselors done. The campers had already gotten introduced to Sam, Luan and Carol a few days ago when they first met.

"Well? Go on, introduce yourselves. Don't worry, they're all nice," Carol insisted to the young kids. Out of them all, Lisa and Lucy were the youngest amongst them, Lucy was just barely.

"I'm Bronna," a lanky girl with messy short blonde hair spoke up first, Bronna had a rather sunken in face. Otherwise she was wearing all long clothes, which Lincoln saw as strange attire for summer. They were thicker, heavier and uncomfortable clothes for this time of year.

"I'm Gregg," Gregg simply raised a hand, afterwards letting his arm fall back to his side simply, he then fell into a silence with a blank expressionless stare focused on nothing, like a robot that fulfilled its purpose and waited to be recharged or given a new order.

"Garb," a short brown-haired boy on the more obese side spoke. He looked as if he had never heard of the word exercise in his life.

"Garb?" Ronnie Anne's head tilted to the left, "Is that a nickname _or…?_ "

"It's short for garbage…" Garb flatly responded. His reply made the Santiago bite her lip in a little guilt for bringing it up at all. What kind of parent named their kid after literal trash?

A tall boy with a thick book held to his chest stayed silent. He was wearing thin glasses with red hair that reached his shoulders. He looked to be having trouble finding the words. He simply moved the book aside to be held under his arm instead.

"Is that a name tag?" Clyde asked. He nodded and let him read the tag.

" **Hi. I'm Skrifa.** " The name tag was the type of tag an employee would wear in a grocery store, rather than someone who was evidently too bad with words.

" _Well then…_ " Hugh coughed, not sure what to say about that.

"Ternance," the near preteen blonde boy with straight hair chimed up. Just as Luan had said, he had a snow-white owl perched on his shoulder with nothing holding or keeping it there.

"Is that real?" Lynn reached a hand near the owl. The white owl screeched and tried to bite her finger off but she jerked it back. She barely kept her hand safe there.

"Yes. Errunce is real. She is my partner," Ternance replied in a monotone voice. His owl could take care of herself. This was a first any of them had seen with a pet owl before that was relatively tame.

"I'm Charlesette," a bubbly bright girl smiled, her auburn hair looking to have never felt a bristle from a single brush since it first came into existence. Charlesette looked so happy, like she could burst at any second.

"I like the enthusiasm," Leni smiled, finding it adorable to see someone in the group excited for the camp experience.

" _Don't get used to it,_ " Sam quietly informed the second oldest Loud.

"Huh? Why?" the fashion lover received no answer, which made everyone a little uneasy.

"Joyce is my name… please don't touch me," a girl roughly Lucy's age with black hair requested, keeping her hands firmly to her side.

" _Alright…?_ " Lincoln nodded to the simple request, even though it came off more like a passive demand.

"Trilby's the name," a black-haired boy wearing a small bowler's hat a top his head introduced himself, appearing to be as normal as the rest. Lucy and Lisa had already introduced themselves to everyone early.

"Well it's nice to meet you all. Let's hope we can help you out with anything you need," Lincoln announced, " **Welcome to Leaf Crown Lake!** "

"Let's get you get unpacked and settled in before we try to get to know each other," Chandler insisted.

"They sent us with more supplies, by the way," Carol claimed. It was not much, meant more to fill up the days they had gone without campers.

"They were really _'filling,'_ " Luan gained a lot of groans.

"I'll get to work on preparing dinner for you all. I imagine you're starved," Hugh smiled.

"I'll help you out," Sam volunteered.

" _I've got a bad feeling…_ " Ronnie Anne mumbled to her boyfriend, worried for the long three months ahead.

"Don't worry! It'll be so much fun!" Leni tried to reassure.

"I hope so," Lynn knew there would be a lot of challenges already out here. She just hoped the kids got along well with each other.

"Let's just focus on helping them get organized," Clyde insisted. Lincoln nodded, wanting everyone to relax since the first few days in a new location were always going to be the roughest, especially after a long hike like that.

* * *

It only took a short time to get everyone set up in the cabins. Garb was set up with Bronna and Joyce. Ternance was set with Skrifa and Charlesette. Trilby, Gregg, Lucy and Lisa were to share the extra member in their cabin. Nobody had any objections to these placements, as far as they could tell.

Lincoln was back at the phone, accompanied by Lynn. He had the displeasure about having her around, but had no one else he could get to help him unlock the phone box since they were all busy. She had no hesitation to eagerly volunteer to help him.

" _Soo…_ What are we doing? I thought you already used your phone call for this week," Lynn had to ask as she did her best to hide her sheepishness. Her only brother nodded, but he seemed intent on keeping them a few feet apart.

"Yeah, but Butch told us to call him once the campers arrived, so he could tell the families they were alright," Lincoln replied. This was a requirement and gave him a good excuse for this phone call to their technical boss.

"I thought the reason most of these kids were here was because their families didn't care anymore?" Lynn responded, even more confused now. Her brother had no response to that.

" _Still…_ we should tell him that everyone made it. He might be able to give us some much-needed info on these kids," Lincoln replied. He hoped such a talk would give them a clue to how to start helping any of the campers. Lynn decided to agree on that.

When they got to the phone box, the two teenagers used their keys to open the locks, watching the door on the box open. The middle Loud took the phone off the receiver and began dialing away.

" _Hello?_ " A rather tired butch answered after a short minute of ringing.

"Hey Butch! It's me, Lincoln. Lynn's with me too. We were calling to let you know everyone made it safe and sound."

"Oh, that's great! Not gonna lie, I was up all night last night waiting for this call…" Butch responded after another long yawn. Evidently, he had been so worried about everybody that it kept him from getting any sleep.

"Don't you have a home or a family to go back to after work?" Lynn asked while her only brother held the phone between their heads.

"I'm a lone man running a program to help troubled youth. What woman wants to be remotely near me?" He replied. Being around troubled children or problematic youth was a terrible thing for people wanting a relationship. Especially those that were not used to helping others to this severe of a degree, by default it made him hard to be around, since all Butch thought about was work.

"Well, can we ask you something?" Lincoln requested.

"Yeah, shoot," the half-awake man let out a long drawn out yawn, "what is it?"

"We wanted to know if there was anything you could tell us about the campers… anything that we should know immediately," Lynn elaborated, aware that it was rude to go behind the young kids backs to get any form of information like this, but if there was something drastically important, they needed to know it, since it was best to know it as soon as possible.

"Well no, they all have their own issues that I'm sure you'll catch onto fast… but two of the students are a bit worse off," Butch began, sounding a bit reluctant to do this, but he felt like he had no real reason to object. The camp he ran was giving these kids last chances after all.

"And what's that?" Lincoln insisted he keep going they were going to be late to dinner otherwise

"Bronna is suffering from a very… _odd_ case of bulimia. I imagine you could see that already just by her face," Butch continued. The Loud siblings looked at each other, trying to ignore the crickets breaking the silence.

"She's really good at hiding it…" Lynn nodded, not sure if there was much they could do immediately on this matter beyond keep a closer eye on the extremely thin girl.

"When you say, _'odd case'_ , what do you mean by that?" Lincoln questioned, having caught that odd phrasing. He was not letting that slip by when they needed the information.

"She doesn't _'purge'_ her food like most people suffering from bulimia. From what I can tell, she only does it when it's a last option… Bronna is obsessed with exercising and burning calories until her body burns out," Butch finished. Lincoln looked to his sister with a raised eyebrow, due to how familiar that sounded.

"H-hey! I'm not _**THAT**_ obsessed with sports! I wouldn't kill myself to get fit… I thought that would be the opposite," Lynn responded, but knew she thus would not be a good person to have around Bronna.

"She eats just enough to survive, but this camp is her last chance before she goes to a really rough psyche ward," butch informed them, sounding remorseful for leaving them with the task of handling such a large mental issue.

"So, all we gotta do is force-feed her?" The sports lover brightly grinned, "That sounds easy enough!"

" **Lynn!** " Lincoln turned to her, peeved that she would consider that, "This isn't a picky newborn that won't eat the vegetables from her plate! We're dealing with someone with a problem in her brain!"

"Sorry, _sorry…_ " Lynn did not argue. She gave in easily, just because it was her only brother tearing into her.

"So, what is about the second kid?" Lincoln averted back to Butch.

"It's Ternance. His issue is… he's just showing no remorse. His final court date is maybe a month after this camp is done, and if he can't show any emotion to what he did then he'll probably be given a long sentence, in juvey…" Butch went silent after that. It made the siblings worried about what the boy with the pet owl did to have a court date, or any accusations laid at him whatsoever.

"Really? What did he do?" He asked.

"Get to the point! I don't care how tired you are, but it's really getting annoying how dramatic you're trying to be," Lynn shouted into the phone. An accented pained groan sounded with his ears ringing from that.

"Sorry, I'm just not sure you'd like to know!" Butch stammered, "Please, don't treat him like he's a complete monster for it, _but…_ he killed his mom."

" _He… **what…?**_ " Lincoln stared, wide eyed at his sister who returned his gaze like a perfect mirror.

" _Oh my gosh…_ " Lynn gulped, feeling her back crawling with chills.

"Again, don't go thinking he's some deranged psychopath, but his case is being hurt and they'll send him to a long time in a mental hospital all because he just won't show any emotion for what he did. It was self-defense, but he's shut everything off from the world aside from that owl of his," Butch argued that they should not be terrified at all as long as they didn't do anything stupid. The most they had to actually worry about was Ternance's owl, Errunce.

" _I… see, well…_ thanks Butch. We'll let you get some sleep now," Lincoln thanked him.

"No problem you two, take care," Butch bid them farewell and good luck before hanging up the phone. They put the phone back up, closed the phone box and took their keys. The two stood in silence.

"Let's just go get dinner…" Lincoln sighed, trying to stay optimistic, but he could feel a new blanket of anxiety layering on top of him now. He figured they would keep the information about Ternance to themselves unless they needed to. He was only a short few steps away when Lynn grabbed his arm, halting his movement.

"Lincoln, _**wait!**_ Can we talk? It's important…" the sports lover pleaded. Her expression showed clear hesitation yet her eyes were full of desperation.

"About what, Lynn? I already have enough to worry about right now," the teenage boy replied, feeling a nervous sweat breakout across his forehead.

 _ **"I want to talk about us…"**_


	12. Broken

" _Wh…_ what about us is there to talk about?" Lincoln nervously asked Lynn. The two stood there alone, apart from each other. They had come to use the phone to let Butch know the news that the campers had arrived, but before they could leave she stopped him to have this talk.

" _Well…_ " Lynn rubbed her arm. All the confidence she had built up and her nerves had faded away in as much seconds as they came. She suddenly felt helpless. Silence was slowly taking over. If she said nothing, her brother would take the first excuse to distance himself from her like he had been doing so much lately. She did not know why either.

"Lincoln, I know that you might see me as a… _'mean'_ sister at times," the sports lover tried to start, but her brother was refusing to make eye contact.

"I'm sure I deserve it…" Lincoln replied, he did seem to have his family metaphorically in half. There were five sisters that he saw as mean and five others he saw as nice, but it was all random in the end. He just made that divided list when he was little to know who to try and prioritize making happy or to help first.

"You didn't deserve half the things that have happened to you! Now quit saying that!" his slightly older sister was barely stopping herself from shaking him violently to try and get her point across. "That big heart of yours… It's always been so charming to see you doing your best for our family, even our friends."

"Lynn…" Lincoln gave her the eye contact she wanted. He was feeling guiltier the more he let her talk, but he did not want to cut her off for something important in her eyes. "I appreciate it… _but…_ "

"I'm going to come out and say it. For the last few years, I've been having… _'feelings'_ for you, and they've just kept getting stronger the more I tried to ignore them," Lynn started, trying to do her best to not lose what little confidence she had that was trying to make her turn tail and run like her life depended on it. And with how fast her heart was racing, she could barely tell a difference.

"Feelings for me?" Lincoln nervously tried to insist she continue. He would have to confront this problem eventually. He felt terrible for not learning about it sooner. He would have intended to do everything in his power to deflate those false emotions of grandeur, if he had known years ago this situation could have been completely avoided or at least remedied faster.

"I… I love you a lot more than just a brother," Lynn forced the confession past her frozen vocal chords. Upon them both for the next moment was just the sound of birds, wind and the running water from the small stream beside them.

"Lynn… what's there to like about me? I'm just one giant mistake. I love you too, but as a sister," Lincoln tried to put it as gently as he possibly could, but he doubted that there was any subtle way to put it without it somehow blowing up in his face. Just like a lot of things he tried to do.

"There's a lot to like about you, Lincoln! Your heart's big, you put others before yourself, even if it's too often, and you're just so cute… You're the opposite of a mistake. You need to treat yourself better," the sports addict stepped toward him. The subtle movements made him feel more uncomfortable. The teenage boy wondered if he was even going to be conscious in the next second.

"Lynn, even if I was crazy enough to lay a single hand on any of my own family in a romantic way, I have Ronnie Anne, and…"

" _'We're perfect together'_ is what you were going to say? You two aren't good together at all! All she does is bully you, and you act like those brief moments of abuse was love in itself!" Lynn countered. When she tried to get up close to her only brother, he pushed her away while taking a few steps back.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lincoln's eyes narrowed. His patience had run drier than a desert after a yearlong drought, "You've bullied me just as much, if not more than her. You're basing what you've said off what little of us you've seen. How can you know about our real relationship when we've been trying our best to keep things secret these last few years?"

" _But…_ " Lynn's inner body was stung by his words.

"Do you even understand what you're asking me? You expect me to drop everything between me and Ronnie Anne, just so I can commit the crime of _**INCEST**_ with you? You've had one too many concussions, Lynn, if you think anything you're saying is right. We have no possible future together, even if I was crazy enough to agree with it."

"…She told you, didn't she?" Lynn grit her teeth.

"Yeah, and no… I had a bad feeling about it, but her telling me about it made me a lot more aware than I wanted to be," Lincoln confessed. He watched as she bit her lip. Neither knew what to do now. It felt like the relationship they once shared was now tattered to pieces. Everything they had done together gained a very strange subtext to it, from the wrestling, the shared showers, even to the simple contact sports they played.

" _What are you going to do…?_ " Lynn was genuinely terrified of his answer. Already her heart felt destroyed. She did not know if she could handle much more without breaking down.

"I'm… going to do nothing. I hope what I've said about this helps you get past this weird phase. I was hoping for this to be a joke from Luan or one of Lisa's experiments gone wrong, but I guess I was wrong," Lincoln responded. He saw no need to take matters further if neither of the two had any intentions of trying to continue this unwarranted relationship, he hoped this one stern talk would be enough to remedy things.

"There are people relying on us here, Lynn… Luna didn't get to come because she was being selfish. Please don't do the same," Lincoln wished to say no more. He had no clue how else he could get the point across without getting neon lights and giant signs involved.

When he received no response, and saw her head focused on the grassy dirt beneath them, he turned away to begin heading back to camp. He had to meet up with the other counselors to discuss how they should handle the campers and to share some of the information they had received from Butch. Lincoln felt a hand on his shoulder stop him. He expected to see his sisters upset face, however he did not want to see it nor could he force himself to turn his neck.

"Huh? Lynn, you don't have to be sorry. I know it's out of your contro- _ **llmmmph!?**_ "

Lynn had forcibly turned him around and pressed her lips against his. Lincoln's eyes widened, and his heart felt like stopping on the spot. His own sister had tricked him while his guard was down to try and get a desperate kiss in as a last-ditch effort to prove how she felt.

" ** _Hey!_ Knock it off!**" the two of them were broken apart with a hard shove, Lynn had gotten knocked on her side. Lincoln barely kept his balance. He was panting, his eyes affixed on nothing. He could not believe what had transpired.

" _Clyde…?_ " he looked to the person beside him who had intervened.

"Hey man… Sorry, you two were taking a while and I got worried," Clyde apologized for the slight harm he had done. When Lynn got up, the McBride stepped in between her and his best friend to protect him.

" _Why…_ Why won't you return my feelings?! I've tried my hardest to show them all this time, Lincoln…" Lynn sobbed, while barely holding back her tears from escaping. Her brother was too shocked by what happened to answer, or even reply.

"Are you crazy?! He wouldn't return his feelings, so you tried to force him to get feelings? What kind of horrible person would do that to someone they claim to love!?" Clyde shouted. His best friend couldn't respond, so he would do it for him. Clyde could not lie that he had been spying on part of their conversation when he caught the two talking, even if he had been sent to check on them.

" _S-stay_ away from me," Lincoln shivered.

"What?" Lynn stared at him, looking rather apologetic, "Lincoln, _I…_ "

" **I said s** **tay away from me!** " he violently snapped while repeating his words, shocking them both to the core. He then turned on his heels and began to storm off to get back to the others, now with an unwanted sense of violation overtaking his body.

" _Damn…_ " Clyde had not seen the lone Loud boy so terrified yet upset in a long time. He could almost see a moment of rage on top of it. If he had not gotten involved, he hated to imagine what would have happened to either of them. Clyde looked to Lynn who was on her knees, emotionally crushed.

"Lynn, he has enough problems going on… don't add onto it. You need to quit while you're ahead," Clyde tried to advise, but those words seemed to cut a nerve in her brain.

" _You and that stupid Spanish girl._ You two sabotaged me before I even had a chance…" Lynn gripped the grass between her fingers. Clyde sighed, unable to make any more sense from her words. It was clear her brain was going crazy, the thing that made it worse was the fact she didn't even try to fight her urges and merely gave into them.

"What's worse? Being a saboteur or a rapist? Because you looked like the latter," Clyde scoffed. The mindset she had adopted was terrible to him. He could only internally pray that this confrontation that she and her brother had engaged in would be enough to snap her back to reality. Lynn however, gave no response to him.

"…if it means anything, when I first found out they were dating, I was really upset too. But he's my bro first before anything else, it's my fault for being too slow, anyhow... But, I had nothing else really motivating me after he snapped me out of my obsession with Lori." Clyde tried to reassure Lynn. She looked to him with tears streaming down her cheeks. She was fighting so many different emotions. Hearing an odd confession from Clyde did little to help, if anything it made her more confused.

" _I'll…_ see you at camp," he gave a small wave before heading off, letting Lynn stay behind for as long as she wanted.

 _"I knew this camp would be nowhere near normal…"_ Clyde tutted to himself. He had to make sure Lincoln was not going to go doing something too rash.

* * *

Nearly all the counselors were gathered up together in the dining hall, excluding Lincoln, Clyde and Lynn. They would normally think nothing of it, but for going to make a simple phone call, they were taking their sweet time with it.

"Maybe one of us should go get them. If Clyde's taking this long, he might need help," Luan suggested, feeling worried for her fellow counselors, but more worried about Lincoln over his behavior lately. Each passing day added on to her worry.

"What if Butch just had a lot to tell them?" Leni replied, trying to be reassuring but not able to deny her growing paranoia.

"That or the phone somehow got busted," Ronnie Anne suggested. She would not be surprised if somehow mother natures creatures tore the phone box apart. Hugh was nearby preparing the welcome food for the campers, within the room they considered kitchen. Carol was doing her best to help, but she was not too good at cooking.

They all had their attentions suddenly grabbed by the swift opening of the door, there Lincoln stood.

"Hey there! We were starting to worry something had happened," Sam greeted him with a smile. He just went right for one of the seats next to Ronnie Anne and Chandler, without saying a single word. Sam was confused by the lack of response.

" _Haah… haah…_ Sorry we took so long," Clyde panted, finally catching up, relieved to not see his best friend being mobbed right now.

"Where's Lynn?" Leni asked her only brother, already feeling confused by his odd behavior.

" _I don't care,_ " Lincoln answered with enough venom in his voice to rival a rattlesnake. He was biting his tongue on what happened earlier, his brain still processing the forced kiss and unable to rationalize it.

"Sh-she's gonna be a while. She said she needed to go to the bathroom, but she told us that we can do the meeting without her," Clyde answered for his brotherly best friend, taking a seat with the others. He was not going to tell what happened if the Loud boy did not want to yet.

"You alright, dude? You look like you had a heart attack… _or two…_ " Chandler asked Lincoln.

"I'm not okay, and I think I might have had one," Lincoln sighed. His chest and head hurt, and he was unable to know if it was from the emotional shock or the stress he went though. Ronnie Anne wanted to ask him what was going on, but she figured it would be best to do after the meeting.

"So, what'd Butch have to say?" Hugh tried to focus on the secondary topic at hand. When he gave no response at first, Clyde nudged his close friend, subtly insisting he not shut himself off from them all due to Lynn's actions.

"Bronna is a weird bulimic… She likes to exercise every chance she gets… She'll… purge her food if she has no other choice," Lincoln flatly explained while he could, while trying to hide his quivering voice. He was going to keep the information about Ternance to himself. It was not the time or place to go bringing up pasts that horrid.

"Wow… that sounds… really familiar," Luan did not want to go making any jokes out of a mental disorder, but if their motivations for exercise were far apart, Bronna sounded almost exactly like Lynn.

"So, we're going to decide who tries to help who?" Chandler guessed. Everyone seemed to agree with that sentiment. Whichever camper the counselor simply could help the most would be the one they were paired with.

"Yeah… I think it's obvious that Lynn can help that Garb kid," Ronnie Anne instantly picked out the camper suited with Lynn. Garb sounded relatively simple in comparison.

"Maybe I can try to help Bronna? I do have a lot of experience cooking. Maybe I could make something so good she can't resist," Hugh suggested. That was the first idea immediately at mind. He would come up with other plans if that did not work. They could not go wasting supplies freely after all.

"Go for it, dude," Sam gave a thumbs up.

"I can try to help Lucy… she has a weird sleepwalking problem, right?" Clyde asked.

"Yep," Luan nodded with the other sisters. It had been happening on and off for the last year or so, but it had been getting worse lately.

"If ya don't mind, I can help Lisa. What's she need help with anyway?" Sam had to ask. From what she could tell, the child prodigy seemed perfectly fine.

"She doesn't want to rest, and she gets really crabby when she has nothing to do," Leni explained, looking to Lincoln who remained quiet with his gaze affixed on the table.

"Exhausting herself working, huh? Well, that shouldn't be too hard," Sam gave a smile to show her confidence.

"I'll help out Charlsette. I'm really _'eager'_ to get to know her!" Luan gained a few groans, but she could tell the other two who had gone with her to guide the campers to leaf crown lake were not too sure.

"You know her problem, Luan… I don't know if it's really a good idea to put you with her," Carol commented, doubtful.

"Why? What's going on with her? She just seems like a really happy person," Chandler questioned. He knew about how some people that saw a person's joy so often would wind up making them miserable, but it was a rarity.

"She has split personality disorder. It's out of her control, but they're like the most terrible of mood swings," Sam informed them all, "Going through all those emotions is like a wacky roller coaster ride. There's no other way to describe it…"

"Really? _Wow…_ " Clyde reacted from all the information they knew about the campers. The others were hiding it well, aside from Ternance. Lincoln was still not saying anything about him.

"I'll try and help Gregg. He doesn't seem like he has any real trouble though," Ronnie Anne vouched to help Gregg. As far as the three adult counselors could tell, he had no issues, but it did seem like Gregg would not do anything on his own unless he was ordered to like a robot, aside from going to the bathroom or feeding himself.

"Why don't I try to help the shy one, Skrifa I think his name was? It looks like he really needs it," Leni stated. Carol gazed over to her.

"He's really shy… he won't speak without that notebook of his," the homecoming queen explained as she took a seat, letting Hugh finish the final touches on the food.

" _Hm…_ " Leni scratched her head, "I've helped Lincoln overcome shyness a few times, but no one has ever been that shy. Even with a girl they really like…"

"I'll take on Joyce… I have no idea how to help someone terrified of germs, but I'll think of something," Carol volunteered, relieved to just know she had others she could go to for help with ideas.

"I'll try and take care of Ternance… it'd be nice if I knew what was wrong with him, so I didn't need to be so careful about things," Chandler rubbed his head, but he remained optimistic. Lincoln had really brightened him up immensely after their heart to heart the other night.

"And that just leaves that Trilby kid… He's all yours, Lincoln," Ronnie Anne told her boyfriend, but he did not seem to hear her. She shook his shoulder slightly.

"Hm? Oh, _uh…_ alright… is there anything I need to know about him?" Lincoln questioned.

"Sorry bro, but we have no idea what he likes or not," Luan shook her head. Lincoln sighed, but welcomed anything to distract his brain right now. He looked so distracted to his sisters and friends.

The door opened to reveal Lynn standing at the entrance, whose face was as blank as her brother's. She had cleaned herself up after the forced engagement. She cast a small glance to her brother.

"Sorry for being… late," Lynn felt her heart throb at Lincoln's gaze that rivaled any murderous look Lori could give, she saw this as a good enough sign to make the sports lover go to another table with some of the adult counselors.

"Don't worry about it, Lynn. We were deciding who should focus on which camper," Leni assured, casting a raised eyebrow to the comedian. Luan shrugged, lacking an idea what was going on with their siblings. Suddenly they were both acting odd.

"We think you'd be best to handle Garb," Hugh explained. The heartbroken sports addict nodded.

" _Sure…_ " Lynn blandly sighed. The tutor was beginning to wonder if everyone was coming down with an odd sickness.

" **Alright!** " Sam clapped, "I'm gonna go gather up the campers since the food's done. Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, how about you come help me?"

"We'd love to… come on, Lame-o," Ronnie Anne forced him out of his seat. Lincoln simply followed along, his lack of response annoying her. She held his hand tightly as the three left.

* * *

Very soon though, while they were walking, the group came to a quick halt.

"Okay, Lincoln," Ronnie Anne coughed, "What happened?"

"You went to make a phone call, but you're acting like you found a body," Sam added. She did not know if this was a symptom of depression, but she sensed that something had broken him worse than ever.

" _…Ronnie Anne…_ you were right," Lincoln did not try to hide it from his girlfriend, and he thought he could trust Sam. The Santiago had given him a large warning beforehand.

"Right about what…?" Ronnie Anne replied hesitantly, somewhat afraid of the answer.

"About Lynn… _she…_ she told me she loved me…. when I told her that she was out of her mind, she kissed me… She didn't care… she just forced me against her," Lincoln could instantly see his girlfriend's expression change to one of pure, intense anger.

" _ **You're lying…!**_ " Ronnie Anne grinded her teeth, her eyes practically exploded with rage and shock.

" _Uhh…_ wow," Sam could not say anything else, but she was more so curious on what to do.

"It's true… she really did…! Clyde was there to stop her… _I…I_ don't know if it's my fault…? I somehow made her fall for me… She wouldn't listen to me… she ignored everything I said… _she…_ " Lincoln buried his face into his hands with a choked sob. Ronnie Anne was trying to do her best to keep calm, but her hands were balling up into fists on their own.

"I'd go to kill her right now…" the Santiago whispered. As she saw her boyfriend crying though, she had to force herself to relax.

 _ **"But you need me more right now. Even if we weren't at this camp, I'm going to do my best to help you like you always try to help me."**_


	13. What Could Have Been

_**Authors Note: Hey all, just wanted to say thank you so much since this fic is nearing 10k views, currently almost to 8k. This is Fallen Pens, Dropping out.**_

* * *

The night fell on Leaf Crown Lake and everyone was in their cabins, avoiding the oddly freezing air of the night. One of those rare times of summer. Lincoln currently was playing cards with his fellow cabin sharing counselors, Chandler and Ronnie Anne. Clyde was trying to sleep early, feeling exhausted from today.

"So, your sister tried to French you, huh…? I knew you were acting down about something, but I didn't imagine it was something like this," Chandler commented. He was told so when the group got to their cabin for the night. It was somewhat therapeutic to the Loud boy to know he could openly talk about it with his friends.

"I was bored of my life because I was in a rut. I was willing to do anything to change things up, but nothing like this…" Lincoln responded. Maybe his wish for a change of pace in his life was answered too strongly. Sam had agreed to keep quiet on matters since it was a problem for the Loud siblings to debate.

"I literally tried to talk her out of it on the way to this camp. _I thought she actually listened…_ " Ronnie Anne sighed, feeling disappointed in Lynn. Thankfully she had gotten her boyfriend to calm down, and now they were trying to focus on tomorrow when they would begin helping the campers.

"Makes me glad that I don't have siblings," Chandler said, beginning to deal out the next hand of cards for his friends. The teenage couple still were adjusting to this nice side of the school bully. It was a breath of fresh air to get to know the real former party lover himself instead of his past façade.

"Wasn't it boring growing up alone? Not having to help take care of a baby or teaching a little sibling how to do things?" Lincoln questioned. The sentence seemed to strike a deep-rooted nerve in Chandler's heart.

"Is that why you've been upset, Chandler? Because you've felt… alone?" Ronnie Anne asked, referring to what her boyfriend told her, about their fellow student being mainly upset due to not getting the chance to know someone who never existed apparently.

"Everyone's scared of being alone, I'm no different," the former bully replied, trying to keep his sorrow from showing too much. Lincoln's advice had helped a lot, so he was able to hold himself back better.

"So, you're going to stop throwing parties, huh? What happened?" the Santiago pressed further. He was popular in their school for his infamous parties. It was an oddity to see him throw away his one claim to fame.

"You can trust us, dude," Lincoln added, insisting that their new friend would feel a lot better with the whole problem off his chest.

" _Fine…_ I'll tell you what happened," he sighed, putting down his cards, motioning the two to hear up, "I already told you how I used to… take advantage of someone. I would have sex with Sharon, in return she'd get an invite."

" _Wait…_ " the name caught Lincoln's attention, "Sharon… _as in…_ Sharon Jewel? The girl that's a grade up from us?"

" _Yeah…_ " Chandler rubbed his head. She was rather well known in their school for having connections to all the teachers. She had no need to raise a single finger. She seemed like a female variant to Chandler but without the constant partying. "She offered it to me, but I still feel like I forced her to do it with me."

"Honestly, knowing Sharon, I don't think you should feel bad. She's probably done a few of the teachers," Ronnie Anne reassured, presuming that he was upset over feeling like he had forced someone into a position of sexual exploit to gain his favor. He shook his head.

"No… _that…_ that wasn't the thing bothering me, at least at first. She started avoiding me, but I didn't think about it. I didn't see her as anything but meat," Chandler looked to be resisting becoming emotional, "When school was ending for summer, I was planning what was going to be the biggest party of the year. I was going all out, my dad even got his brother to let us use his night club all for that party… but while I was working hard away to plan it all, Sharon kept trying to get ahold of me… I ignored every phone call because I wanted to focus on the party."

"Yeah… everyone was talking about how you cancelled that party and left your other friends to host some scaled down game party sleepover thing," Ronnie Anne nodded, recalling how everyone in school talked about how strange that party had been. It was good and fun, but not what Chandler had been crafting.

"What caused you to cancel it?" Lincoln requested. He had a bad feeling that the answer for his new friend's pain was about to be revealed. Chandler rested his cards down.

"I ran into Sharon at the burger joint and she… she told me she was sorry that she couldn't wait any longer for me," he bit his lip, his gaze going down to the floor.

"Wait… for what?" Ronnie Anne asked hesitantly.

"She couldn't wait any longer to decide. She was pregnant... She had been trying to talk to me for the last two weeks and I ignored her… so she… got an abortion," Chandler's last words made him bury his face into his own hands. Lincoln and Ronnie Anne stared, wide eyed.

" _Oh…_ Chandler… I'm so sorry," Lincoln could not think of any other words to say, beyond giving his condolences.

"She couldn't wait any longer to hear your opinion on it?! What kind of idiot just tries to talk to you on the phone, when you two literally go to the same school?" Ronnie Anne felt her brain throb in pain at trying to find the logic in this. Their friend was starting to cry, his emotional control lost.

"I didn't think much about it at first… then I was asking myself so many things, like what they would have been like… their hair color, their eyes… would they have been a boy or a girl… I felt worse and worse the more I imagined it," Chandler sobbed, his body quivering. Lincoln put an arm around his friend, trying to comfort him. Ronnie Anne was not sure what they could say. She could not even imagine doing anything like that without talking to the one who impregnated her first.

"It's all because I was distracted trying to throw a party… just another stupid party, like I had every other week for any crappy excuse I could get my hands on," Chandler could not really say much more past his sobs. Ronnie Anne came and helped him up.

"It's not your fault, Chandler. You just wanted to have fun while you could. Time flies faster than you know," Ronnie Anne tried to comfort him to the best of her ability, but she felt limited to being able to really help him herself.

"We should probably call it a night," Lincoln recommended. It seemed they had a lot of stress overbearing them today, and he knew they needed to focus on helping the camper's tomorrow morning.

" _Ye…Yeah…_ Thanks for listening," Chandler thanked his new friends. He went off to his bed of the cabin. Ronnie Anne looked to her boyfriend who had no real words for this. The nights once bright tone had gone.

"No problem. That's what friends are for," Lincoln told Chandler, though received no response, but was confident his words at least comforted him a little. With everyone else down for the night, the last two awake junior counselors saw no reason not to get some early rest as well.

* * *

Shortly after that talk, Lincoln crawled into his half of the bed he shared with his girlfriend and laid down, facing the doorway for their cabin. His eyes shut without delay.

"Hm?" Lincoln had not a chance to keep his eyelids closed for long. He felt Ronnie Anne's pair of hands wrapped around him from behind.

" _Ronnie Anne…?_ " Lincoln saw seeing his girlfriend snuggled up to him. If confused him. She never usually tried to show her love so explicitly and every night since they been at this camp, she threatened to kick him out of the shared bed entirely, unless they slept with their backs turned to each other.

"Are you okay?" Lincoln worriedly asked her. Not that he was complaining, this felt nice and made the rather rough bed more comfortable.

" _Just…_ shut up and let me enjoy this…" Ronnie Anne had a rose tint on her cheeks. Her boyfriend gained a small smile as he rolled over wrapping his arms around her.

"Thanks for helping me not lose my mind," Lincoln nuzzled her. She felt more sheepish with each passing second. She had resisted plotting to get back at Lynn, but things were such a mess that she did not want to go jumping the gun in the heat of the moment, especially when her boyfriend needed mental relief. The two simply enjoyed their embrace as they drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The morning sun rose faster than they knew, Ronnie Anne's eyes fluttered open. She tilted her head to the right, she quickly grew a big smile. Lincoln still was slumbering away, having barely moved since last night.

 _"I'm lucky to get the cutest boy in our school,"_ Ronnie Anne hummed to herself as she brushed a hand against his cheek. After a minute, she got out of the bed and left her boyfriend to sleep for as long as he wanted, while getting ready for the day ahead.

* * *

"Welp, time to get started on helping with Gregg," Ronnie Anne stretched, standing outside of the cabin. She could see mostly the adult counselors and perhaps four of the campers being the only ones awake right now.

"Good morning Ronnie Anne!" Leni gave a warm wave to her. Her feet were bare and in the lake's water.

"Hey, Leni," Ronnie Anne waved back, if only slightly, "What're you doing?"

"I'm just relaxing until Skrifa wakes up, we already finished checking how much food we've got," Leni smiled. Ronnie Anne saw Hugh across the lake, talking with the bulimic Bronna, both seated on a log. it looked like a normal conversation, but she seemed to be drowning him out.

"Do you have any idea where Gregg is?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"At the dining room. I asked him if he'd clean up by dusting for us after he ate… that was probably an hour ago though," Leni scratched her head, now wondering if dusting really took that long. The dining hall was not too big after all.

"Thanks, Leni… do me a favor, and keep an eye on Lynn," Ronnie Anne headed off on that note.

"Wait, why? Did something happen again?" the fashion designer received no response. She sighed and rubbed her head.

 _"Is she depressed like Lincoln, too…?"_ Leni pondered to herself, feeling worried already, but she would oblige Ronnie Anne's request for the sake of being helpful.

Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow when she passed by one of the windows to the dining hall. It was so clean that she could see her reflection on the glass.

"Wow… there used to be a million cobwebs before," she muttered confusedly. Upon stepping into the dining hall, she was surprised to see pure, shimmering cleanliness throughout the whole room.

"Jeez… did this place even need dusting? …did I miss some cleanup party?" she murmured. She looked over and saw the camper she had been paired up with, mopping the wooden floor.

"Hey, Gregg! Did you do all of this?" she called out as she came over to him.

"Yes," Gregg flatly replied, focused on mopping away. She put her hands on her hips, not able to deny how impressed she was by his cleaning prowess.

" _Well…_ You can stop now, y'know? I think you literally made this place cleaner than it ever was before," Ronnie Anne insisted he could relax now. The second she said to stop he let go of the mop and let it clatter to the floor beside the near empty bucket of water. She tried not to think much of it, she simply picked the items up and put them aside before leaving with the camper she was responsible for.

"Okay then… So, what do you like to do, Gregg?" Ronnie Anne asked as they stepped outside.

"I don't know," he robotically replied.

"…so, you don't like anything?"

"I dunno."

The Santiago held her head, not sure where to go. Trying to get to know him had so far already seemed like a hassle .

 ** _"…This is gonna be a long three months."_**


	14. Obedient

_**Authors Note: Wow, thanks for the 10k views everybody! I may not be getting many reviews anymore, but I'm glad to at least know you're reading this. take it easy all! This is Fallen Pens, dropping out.**_

* * *

Ronnie Anne was in the storage building with Gregg, rummaging through the mess inside of the storage facility. Only the food rations were locked away safely in the appropriate cabinet. Each cabinet had two special locks on them, just like the phone box.

"Sorry. I didn't think it'd be so hard to find them," Ronnie Anne apologized to the camper she was responsible for. She got no reply from him. He was simply staring at nothing she pondered on how to strike up conversation.

" _Uh…_ So, what are your parents like?" Ronnie Anne questioned, opening another bag. Many sports balls and a pair of baseball bats fell out. She sighed, guessing this was one of Lynn's bags. Ronnie Anne began cleaning up the mess she had made because of the poorly positioned bag.

"Which one?" Gregg asked back. She hoped she was not treading on sensitive territory by pressing further in this conversation.

"Your mom. How about you tell me what your mom was like?" Ronnie Anne threw the bag of balls aside, continuing the search through the mess of a storage shed. Gregg took a moment to answer, still not focusing his gaze on anything.

"Which one?"

"Wha…? _Oh…_ Your parents are divorced?" Ronnie Anne wanted to face palm at how she walked into this conversation. Whether or not if she was coming off insensitive by accident was irrelevant.

"No," Gregg blinked. That was the first time she had seen him really blink ever since he first arrived.

"Are you adopted?" she took a shot in the dark.

"No, I'm not adopted," the young boy scratched his head.

"Okay… why don't you tell me about _**BOTH**_ of your moms, then?" Ronnie Anne really had only that to go off of, judging by their repertoire, she had to assume he just was a child of two mothers. She really wondered what Gregg could need help with to be sent to this camp. He seemed so obedient and very well behaved, it made her wonder what type of people his parents were, because usually with this type of behavior, it meant they were either very strict or very posh.

"Which ones?" His reply made her want to hit her head against the nearest tree. She took in a breath to try and stay relaxed.

"What do you mean, _'which ones'?_ How many parents do you have?" Ronnie Anne questioned without hesitation, no longer beating around the bush. He was not reacting to any of her questions so she presumed he would not care about this line of inquiry.

"I have three daddies and five mommies," Gregg's answer made her eyes go wide.

"I'm… sorry?" Ronnie Anne stuttered, now hesitant to even continue this conversation.

"I have eight parents," he repeated, though her brain was still snapped into two pieces from the surprise of it alone.

"Ok… _I…_ **which ones…** " Ronnie Anne wanted to ask which two created him, but she felt she would get an aneurysm from this conversation if she asked the wrong thing, she focused on the bag beside them.

"Oh! Look, there they are," Ronnie Anne finally found what she had been looking for, it was hanging up on one of the shelves. She opened the bag and took out the parts for three fishing rods that needed basic assembly. Getting bait would not be too hard. With the fishing tools acquired, she began to leave with her camper.

"So, what is it that your parents do for work?" she tried to stay casual as her camper followed like a professionally trained dog.

"They let people come to our house," Gregg claimed as they walked a few yards away from the camp, following upstream of the lake to find a part of the river out of the way to fish in.

"A bed and breakfast? Didn't think that could be a real job…" she had always assumed that bed and breakfasts were done to make a little extra money, or for those that were lonely to the point that they loved to have guests.

"I dunno if they ever had breakfast. They usually only stayed for a few hours and left," the young boy's words added to her confusion.

"How big was your house? Like how many rooms did it have?" Ronnie Anne chirped as they arrived at a part of the stream that widened. The two saw some fish in the water. She put the bag down before opening it to begin assembling the fishing rods.

"It had eighteen rooms, but they all were small aside from our rooms," he explained as he looked around the woods surrounding them. It was rather peaceful, but the area they were in was heavily shaded. Only thin streams of light shimmered through the many leaves.

"Oh, so it was like an inn or something? What do they even do?" Ronnie Anne put the first fishing rod aside and began to put together the second.

"The people that came over would give my mommies or daddies money. Then they'd go wait for a while in a room for one of them to come in. They'd make a lot of noise for a while," Gregg explained thoroughly for her with no hesitation or care to admit to every little detail of his life.

"…A brothel…? Your family lives, and runs a brothel?" Ronnie Anne stared at him, unable to really believe what she was hearing, but that sounded exactly like one according to her knowledge.

"Yes, some people that visited called our house that." Gregg replied, like he was oblivious.

" _And…_ what did **_YOU_** do normally around your house? Like chores or anything?" Ronnie Anne was hoping to hear some form of normality from him. It was reminding her of those rumors going around school about Lincoln and what he did with his sisters. It started off as a joke, but people quickly began believing it. She didn't even know if her boyfriend was aware of the rumors.

"I cleaned up the rooms whenever someone left," Gregg stated his only chore. Ronnie Anne held her head, shaking in slight disbelief over imagining this child in an environment like that.

"We'll talk more about it later if you want, but… for now, why don't you just help me catch some worms?" The Santiago requested since she needed some time to absorb all that information. She still had no idea why he was sent to this last chance camp. She continued to thread the fishing lines, presenting a small empty container to him to put the worms in. There had been a light rain overnight which dampened the ground enough for them to easily dig into.

"Okay," Gregg took the container before wandering away like a robot sent to fulfill an order.

" _Jeez…_ " Ronnie Anne let out a stressed exhale, "Either he's innocently oblivious or traumatized."

* * *

After a short time, she saw the young camper return with the container closed.

"Did you find any worms?" Ronnie Anne grabbed the container, but he did not let go.

"You can let go now, Gregg." She sighed.

He then let go. She was genuinely concerned that if someone told him to do something dangerous, he would do it with no hesitation. The teenage girl just had to hope nobody would be that cruel.

"Alright, let's see what we hav… **eh?!** " she saw a small sized snake with the worms in the box. She had to bite her tongue to resist screaming. She remained calm, knowing it was not a venomous one thankfully. She was becoming very glad she studied so much for the junior counselor test. Learning about the areas wildlife had been a big part of it, and it already was coming in handy inadvertanly.

"I-I thought I asked you to gather worms, not snakes," the young Santiago picked up the snake, she took it over to a nearby tree and put the reptile on one of the higher up branches, letting it do as it pleased.

"It looked like a worm," Gregg replied, not focusing on her. Ronnie Anne did not reply. She was just thankful he had gathered up plenty of bait and not any dangerous cobras.

"Do you know how to fish?" she sighed. He nodded, taking the fishing pole that was handed to him.

"Hey! Is everything alright?" a new voice entered. They glanced over to see Lynn, who had came running over to the two upon hearing screaming. Ronnie Anne felt sick already.

"…Gregg just found a snake is all," the Santiago bluntly said. Gregg simply stood idle.

"Where's your camper?" She added.

"Garb's in the bathroom," Lynn replied. She looked upset, even if she was doing her best to hide it. Ronnie Anne knew she wanted to talk.

"Gregg, focus on fishing… and don't stop until you catch like five fish," Ronnie Anne ordered the camper.

"Yes, ma'am," Gregg picked up the container of worms and stepped over to the stream, almost as if he was impervious to the tension between the two. With him now preoccupied, the young Santiago girl took her fellow junior counselor a short bit aside.

"What is it you want?" Ronnie Anne asked, no patience remaining. It took her all her mental strength to not try and drown her in the river for what she had done.

" _I…_ I wanted to apologize to you," Lynn rubbed her hands together like a nervous habit that had recently became more prominent.

"For trying to molest my boyfriend, or for trying to molest your brother?" Ronnie Anne retorted with venom in her voice. She was not sure which of the two options were worse.

"For not listening to you…" Lynn squeaked while looking at the grassy ground beneath them, the loudest thing right now was the river running beside them.

"I told you to stop while you were behind. I told you that you'd just get hurt, and now look at you. All you've accomplished by doing this was ruin your relationship with your brother," Ronnie Anne scolded Lynn, somewhat furious for the fact her heart to heart moment of advice with the sports lover had been carelessly brushed aside.

"You don't think I know that already?! I don't even know what I would have done if Clyde hadn't been there…" Lynn held her head, looking upset with herself. She wondered why they were talking so close to one of the campers, but Gregg seemed to be surprisingly uninterested in anything other than the task he had been given at hand.

"You'd probably keep making out with him until he pushes you off, and then you'd pretend you're the victim of the situation like most love-struck idiots that get shot down?" the Santiago guessed with her arms crossed. She could not count the amount of times Lincoln got in trouble because his sisters did something, and pinned the blame on him with their mob mentality. It upset the black haired girl more for the fact he took it with no care, like trying to counter it or defend himself would make things worse.

"I already feel bad enough. I just wanted to apologize to you," Lynn solemnly spoke.

Ronnie Anne turned her back to her and returned to Gregg. "I'm not the one you need to apologize to… and even then, I don't believe you're actually sorry."

" _ **Why not?!**_ I'm apologizing from the bottom of my heart! Can't you see that?" Lynn argued, but received a glare from Ronnie Anne that pierced her soul.

"You might be apologizing for what you did, but I know you don't regret it. I can tell you just want more. Inside, you're happy to have gotten to feel his lips against yours," Ronnie Anne focused back on fishing. She saw a fish on Gregg's line, but he was not pulling it up or reeling it in, the spanish girl could see his fishing line refused to reel back due to some malfunction.

Lynn stood there, gritting her teeth hard enough to make gums start bleeding a little. She simply gave up, turned around, and began to leave.

"I need to focus on helping Garb… I'm here for the campers first," Lynn tried to remind herself what Lincoln had told her before. She figured that if she could get Lincolns forgiveness, she would get Ronnie Anne's. She wanted them both to forgive her. But she knew the similar aged Santiago was not wrong. Lynn's heart felt out of her control, as well as her mind seemingly gradually degrading further and further with each passing day. It was difficult to fight her heart's desires to feel his lips against hers again.

 _ **"She's not wrong though... I want more, a lot more than just a measly kiss..."**_


	15. Distractions

"Are you sure this is a good way to warm up my arms, Miss Loud?" Garb stood at a further back part of the camp in more exercise fitted clothing. The outfit didn't originally fit him until Leni quickly fixed that when Lynn asked her too.

"I imagine it would… I mean, it takes a lot of strength to draw a bowstring," Lynn said while handing over the bow with a small bag full of the modified arrows. The arrow heads had foam balls and tennis balls, just as Lincoln had customized them. Lynn thought it was rather pointless, but considering she could not tell if any of the campers had a suicidal or homicidal issue, it made perfect sense with that factor considered.

"Well, alright…" the brown-haired boy nodded. It made sense, but out of the two of them, she was the sports expert. Lynn motioned him to proceed and show her nothing but his best. Nearby, there was a few small targets set up. They had rather lopsided paintjobs, but Lincoln had done his best with him.

Garb took one of the arrows and held it to the bow, pulling it back. His arms were shaking as he struggled to aim. After a moment, he let go. The arrow flew and hit the bottom left corner of one of the targets, sending it spinning off the small low hanging tree branch it had been set up on.

" _Hey…_ I did it," Garb was surprised that he actually hit the target, even if it was technically just a pot shot.

"Good work, but you got to take your time with aiming. Remember, you need to hit the center," Lynn told him, looking over the bow. She had put the draw weight for the archery weapon as low as it could possibly go. There was no other way to make it any easier for the camper.

"Do you do this to warm up?" Garb set the next arrow on the bow and took aim, doing his best to remain calm.

"I had a friend in the archery club, I sometimes got to shoot them with her. It really got my muscles to catch on fire fast," Lynn answered, wondering how that old friend was doing after having moved to another town. She watched as the second arrow miss the target and hit a bush, scaring off the dozen critters in it.

"So, what do you like to do in your down time?" she tried to keep her mind off the other rampant thoughts in her head right now. That focus was the only thing keeping her barely sane. Lincoln's upset face was scarred into her memory, right alongside Ronnie Anne's soul slashing glare. Just remembering these thoughts upset her, possibly losing her brother and new friend back to back was a sorrowful thing to think about.

"Down time?" the obese boy chirped as the next arrow missed the target again, bouncing off the tree holding up the dozen targets and landing right by them. He sighed, disappointed in himself.

"Yeah. _Y'know…_ what do you like to do when relaxing? A hobby?" Lynn tried her best to not make her assumption too obvious, but she was guessing he liked to only play video games and go on the internet to binge watch videos.

"I helped my brother make non-lethal mouse traps. Our neighborhood has a lot of them," Garb's reply made the teenage girl confused. It sounded more like a job than a hobby, but it surprised her nonetheless.

"Mouse traps? And, _uh…_ what do you do with the mice _**AFTER**_ you capture them?"

"Usually release them somewhere else or sell them to snake owners. It was a great way to make a lot of money… My brother, Curt, he was a wiz at catching mice," Garb shrugged. The next arrow he had fired had gotten stuck in the tree.

"Guess that makes sense. Half of my family would have a heart attack if they saw a mouse," Lynn lightly laughed, watching him put down the bow. For now, he was finished, his arms and shoulders were sore.

"It's fun to watch the traps and see them catch something. It's always satisfying," Garb took a seat beside his counselor for the short-earned break.

"You said you have a brother? What was he like?" she tried to continue the talk since so far, he seemed easy-going while talking about his personal life.

"Curt was a great person… he, _uh…_ got his name like me, except his actual name is Cur… anyway, before I got sent here, he got sent on his next tour of duty," Garb informed her of his familial ties. It made her wonder what was wrong with this boy's parents if they were naming their kids after insults.

"Can I just ask why you're here? It sounds more like your family is the issue rather than yourself…" Lynn hopped to her feet before stepping over to begin picking up and gathering the arrows.

"Because I've spent the last year trying to lose weight with no results, and if I can't lose forty pounds before I go home, I'm going to wind up at a boarding school," his response made her stare at him in disbelief.

" **Fo-forty pounds!?** " Lynn was in awe at this, "In **THREE** months?! What would a boarding school even do to help?"

"It'd make dad not have to care about me for a while… he has connections to the place, so he'll be able to get me in no matter what," Garb claimed, not seeming to even flinch at the acknowledgement of his parent's neglect. Despite what was on the line, he was not motivated himself. It all clearly had been stolen from him.

"Well, don't you worry, I promise on my name as a Loud, I'll help you lose that weight!" Lynn declared, yet for some reason that made her camper feel less comfortable instead of motivated.

"Have you ever been forced to do something?" The obese boy asked, it was so sudden, but she guessed his social abilities were about as poor as her own.

" _Uh…_ Not exactly, but everyone in our family has forced one another to do things at some point," Lynn replied with some guilt to her voice, her thoughts beginning to drift toward thinking about Lincoln again. She doubted that he ever truly forgave them for half the things they had done to him. "Why do you ask?"

"I ask, because I've never met someone that plays so many sports before… I was thinking you had problems like me," Garb answered. Lynn shook her head.

"No, I'm not forced to play all these sports… I just do it," she said while looking to the sky above them. She swore that things were starting to get a little cloudy.

"Then why? No one does anything without reason, right?" Garb did not let up on his curiosity. The Loud could not blame him for being so fascinated with her motivation to play so many sports at once. She thought she could at least be honest with him.

"Because it helps me escape my own mind…" Lynn answered, trying to do her best to resist curling up into a ball and lying on the ground. She had to fight off her body's constant desires to give up. "Okay Garb, that's enough talking. Let's focus on actually exercising our bodies instead of our voice boxes."

"Alright, Miss Lou-…?" Garb stopped himself, looking surprised. Lynn quirked an eyebrow. Whatever startled him was behind her, so she turned around to see a familiar person not too subtly peeking around the corner of the cabin.

"Bronna? What're you doing?" The school sports ster approached with Garb following. The short blonde girl seemed disappointed to know she had been caught, but after a moment, she stepped out and answered.

"Please, Miss Loud. Let me join you in exercising," Bronna bowed like she was begging to feel the burn of fitness. Lynn remembered what she had been told about Bronna's odd case of bulimia. It was on par with assisted suicide if she made this young girl burn more of her body weight.

"Sorry Bronna, but I can't help you right now… Why aren't you with Hugh?" Lynn replied. She assumed that the bulimic girl had snuck off while Hugh was in the bathroom or assisting someone else.

"He's cooking and wanted me to help… I couldn't handle all the smells from the foods," Bronna responded. All the different ingredients and the large amount of food itself had created such stench that it made her want to throw up.

"You know you can't go running off without telling him," Lynn patted the short blonde girl's head. Garb was idle and barely paying this conversation much mind.

"I don't want him to be my counselor…" Bronna was becoming upset from being treated like a mentally condemned child. "I shouldn't even be here! Nothing is wrong with me!"

"Bronna, you need to calm down! Nobody wants to be here, but everyone that **IS** here, is here to help or get help… Why do you want to exercise so much? It's not healthy to overexert yourself," Lynn's words indeed calmed her down. The sports lover was being genuine, unlike the other dozen medical professionals that had tried to help her.

"Why else…? It's so I can be stronger! There is no other point to training but to get stronger," Bronna retorted. Lynn was now mentally asking herself if this is how some people saw her.

"There's plenty of reasons, but ever since you've arrived, I've noticed that you barely eat anything off your plate… I know you run laps around the camp at night, too," Lynn and the other counselors all had seen the bulimic doing these things, but they did nothing to stop her. Being too forceful would just backfire. She could remember Lincoln scolding her for the force-feeding idea. Lynn's eyes went to Garb. "And I know, Garb, that you help clear the rest of her plate."

Garb gulped, but nodded, surprised by these counselors' sharp eyes. "I do… I just didn't want the food going to waste…"

Lynn sighed and gazed back to Bronna. "Why don't you go back to Hugh now?"

Bronna bit her lip before turning around and beginning to leave, her head hung in defeat. Lynn turned back to her assigned camper.

"Alright Garb, if you try to help cover for her again, you're going to wind up in trouble."

"Yes, Miss Loud…" Garb nodded, "What do we do now?"

"What do we do?" Lynn chuckled, "Run some laps, of course! That sound like a good start?"

" _Uh…_ Well I guess so," the obese camper nodded, seeming to understand. It was either that or push ups, and he knew he would not be able to do those.

"Great! Then you have no problem doing my average for a start!" Lynn pulled out a whistle from her pocket, "Eight laps! Let's go!"

"Wait, what?" Garbs voice was overridden by the loud whistle blowing. He took that as a sign to start jogging. The junior counselor followed along with a smile on her face. She was more than glad to force the terrible thoughts out of her mind like this.

* * *

"Jerks. …nothing but jerks," Bronna sneered. Hidden from everyone, she had the key to the special locks snug in her palm, having taken it from Hugh while he was distracted. She eyed the cabin where a lot of items were stored. She knew the food was there.

"I'm tired of these jerks everywhere I go… trying to make me fat… weak… unfit…" Bronna muttered as she put the key into the storage building's special lock. With one twist, it opened and let her remove the lock and throw it aside with the key still in it. She left the storage room's door slightly ajar for anyone or anything to get in without the partial security stopping them.

"This'll stop it! It has to!" Bronna scurried off to get back to Hugh, running right past Leni along the way with Skrifa beside her.

"Was that Bronna?" Leni looked to the shy camper, neither had seen what she had just done. He opened his journal and scribbled in it before showing it to his counselor, which simply read **'yes'**.

"I guess she was getting something for Hugh… oh well," Leni shrugged, still pondering on how to start with Skrifa. So far, any question she asked was deflected by pure silence. Very strong silence at that. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in Leni's head.

 _ **"…Oh! I think I have an idea!"**_


	16. Calm before the storm

_**Authors note: Hey all, I just wanted to say I hope you all had a merry christmas and a happy new years, sorry for the wait while I was on my writing break, but I'm back now an we're gonna try to get back to normal! Sorry if this is a bad chapter, we are a bit rusty. This is fallen pens, dropping out.**_

* * *

"You're really good at being quiet… I imagine you'd hate my house," Leni lightly laughed, talking to Skrifa as he wrote his responses. Skrifa nodded, his seemingly endless blank paged book clutched tight to his chest. The adult counselors had tried everything from simple talk to even trying to get a slight noise from the preteen, but again she could not get him to speak. Nothing had got him to relax and open up to her either.

"Did you take a vow of silence?" the fashion lover chirped. He shook his head. She sighed, feeling more defeated by the lack of response. The last couple of hours of even trying to scare him to make a noise was wasteful.

"Well, come on. Dinner should be done by now," she put a hand on his shoulder, while they began to head off to get to the dining hall with the others. Just then, a faint ringing sound caught her attention.

"Hm?... But cellphones aren't allowed at this camp," Leni murmured, but the ringing did sound muffled by something. She recognized the location the sound was coming from.

"Go on without me, Skrifa," Leni insisted, "I have to answer that. I'm pretty sure it's important." She said apologetically.

Skrifa gave a nod and left without so much as a word. Leni quickly headed off to get to the phone box.

* * *

Once she did arrive to the area up a little bit away, she found Clyde there alone. He seemed happy to see another counselor.

"Hey Leni! Just in time. I needed another key," the young boy chuckled. He had come when he heard the ringing as well. His key already stuck holding open the first lock.

"I'm just glad I didn't have to go finding somebody else. How are things going with Lucy?" Leni got her key from her pocket and unlocked the second lock, the box popping open to let them see the phone ringing inside it. The ringing had stopped short, but it started again right away, an unfortunate sign that Butch needed to talk to them desperately.

"I got no idea. How do you exactly help someone with sleepwalking?" Clyde responded, seeming to be as stumped with Lucy, as much as she was with her camper. She had no idea what to reply with. She simply grabbed the phone and held it to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Oh, thank gosh. One of you finally answered," Butch sounded panicked, unable to stay calm. The panic alone even made him lose his fake Australian accent.

"What's wrong, Butch?" Clyde asked, the phone between his and Leni's head, sharing it so they did not have to keep handing it to one another.

"Okay, first off, let me ask how the clouds look there. Like, how is the weather?" Butch demanded more so than inquired.

"The weather?" Leni chirped, looking up to the sky. The clouds were dark, and the sun was gone, or perhaps hidden. It seemed night approached sooner than she and Clyde would expect as result. "It looks like it's about to rain… and really hard."

They could hear him curse out his irritation. "Alright… so I'm gonna cut to the point. A tornado's passing by and it's _**BARELY**_ gonna miss Royal Woods, but it's causing a _**LOT**_ of storms. We're going to have some flooding all throughout town."

"But the camp's high up," Clyde felt worry in his heart, "Are you saying we've gotta evacuate?"

"Oh no!" Leni gulped. This three-month long trip would be cut short by the first month's end if that happened. The worst part was that those campers would lose their last chances in this camp.

"No, but I called to tell you that you're gonna have heavy rain for three days, at least. And we won't be able to get supplies to you at the same time we normally do because of it," Butch explained to the best of his ability.

"Well, at least we'll be safe," Leni sighed. With a little extra rationing, they would be able to handle it hopefully with relative ease.

"Hopefully, but remember, I have no way to help you guys if something happens. Nobody will be able to help with this storm 'til it passes," Butch reminded them. They had to take extra caution with everything they did for the next few days, every injury every piece of food was a lot more critical in terms of needing attention now.

"You can't get us some extra food out here before the storm hits?" Clyde requested, but he assumed that Butch had already considered that, since the ridiculously long couple day hike it took to get to this camp in the first place, it was impossible to even send counselors to retrieve the rations on their part. They would not be able to get back in a best case scenario.

"I may be a man with a lotta cash, but I don't have a helicopter," Butch answered. Leni had hoped for the opposite. She thought anyone with goods amount of money had a helicopter. "Well, good luck, and be careful, all of you." Butch hung up to continue preparing his own personal affects for safety to not be flooded.

"This isn't good… at all," Leni fearfully spoke. She hated storms, but the thought of thunder constantly striking for three days terrified her. Usually her fear got so bad that it made her ruin dresses she worked on by accident.

"Come on. We better tell everyone else, so we can start preparing for the storm," Clyde closed the phone box back and locked it before handing Leni's key back to her.

"Oh, right!" she nodded, thankful for him refocusing her attention on the matter at hand. The two headed off to go meet up with everyone else at the dining hall to tell them the news.

* * *

When the junior and adult counselors got to the mess hall, everyone else was already gathered there. They let the door close behind them. Almost everyone looked calm, but Bronna seemed more upset than anything.

"Hi Leni, hey Clyde. You two took a while," Lincoln was the first to greet them from the nearby table. Ronnie Anne and Chandler were beside him, lost in their own minds. The campers were all seated at their own tables, despite being offered to join their counselors. Though Ronnie Anne had to order Gregg to sit down and just enjoy dinner.

"Hey, Lincy, sorry, but we have a problem," Leni replied, looking apologetic to be spoiling the rather nice atmosphere tonight. It would not be long before the storm would ruin it anyway.

"It's a real big problem too!" Clyde added, noticing immediately that Lynn was seated at the opposite table across the room, farthest away as she was able to be from Lincoln, possibly to make him feel comfortable.

"What's going on?" Ronnie Anne asked, feeling bitter after the talk with Lynn earlier today.

"Butch called. We have a really big storm coming. It's going to flood Royal Woods for a few days and we aren't going to get any supplies until it passes either," Leni tried to put emphasis on the lack of supplies. It meant the food they had was all they were going to get for now, and with twenty mouths to feed, it was going to prove as a challenge.

"Seriously? I know we were going to be in for rain, but it's really going to be that bad?" Chandler was in disbelief. Everyone else seemed to be sharing similar sentiments of the stunning news.

"It is, really! So much that Butch felt like he had to call and warn us," Clyde insisted, backing up Leni here. Butch was never the caller, always the called.

" _Fan-freaking-tastic…_ as if I didn't have enough on my brain with what to do about Gregg, I'm now worried about Bobby," Ronnie Anne grumbled, wanting to hit her head on the table in frustration. Yet the rain was not as bad as half of the events that have happened since they arrived here, at least to her.

"Well then, it's a good thing, we've been using less food than we get,", Lincoln reassured everyone,

"Well…" Leni was unsure what to say in reply. Nobody knew what to contribute to two of the campers. Garb did not eat as much anymore, and Bronna never seemed to like the food offered.

"Come on. We better check on the food and see what we have," Lincoln got up from his seat, having finished his dinner already.

"I'll stay here and help bring the others up to speed," Clyde volunteered to let everyone know what was happening.

"Thanks, dude," the bucktoothed boy thanked him with a smile, before beginning to leave with Leni to go to the storage building.

"I'll go with them. He might need someone who can actually count past ten," Chandler opted in to go along with the two, he could not trust Leni to do this without any mistakes.

* * *

"What was for dinner, by the way?" Leni asked as they walked. The three of them could see the night beginning to encroach the atmosphere, the winds picking up. They knew the rain would begin soon and not hold back.

"Oh, Ronnie Anne caught a bunch of fish… Gregg seems to be natural with a fishing rod according to her," Lincoln smiled. It was an unexpected but nice surprise to have a bundle of fish to eat, even if it was a pain to prepare.

"Yeah, but she and Lynn aren't on speaking terms… all I've seen them do is exchange glares," Chandler commented. Lincoln only nodded in agreement, but hearing Lynn's name alone made him wince inside.

"I just wish we could all get along…" Leni murmured. Something happened obviously to cause her family to become incoherent with each other, and the fact that she didn't know what was very upsetting to her.

"That makes two of us," Lincoln nodded with her. However, they all stopped in place when they got to the storage building.

"The doors open? What's up with that?" Chandler wondered aloud. The storage building door stood wide open. He heard a clank at his feet when he tried to step closer. He reached down, picking something up off the ground. "A lock and a key…?"

"If the door's been open then, that means… oh crap!" Lincoln rushed inside the storage building when the fear of how long the door had been left open hit the forefront of his mind.

"Oh no!" Leni gasped at the scene of a family of raccoons. Litter was everywhere, a lot of the bags the food was in were torn open and in absolute shreds.

" **Whoa!** " they all screamed when the raccoons all went running past them. The small food bandits vanished back into the woods in mere seconds.

"The food! Oh my gosh!" the long blonde-haired girl looked at the mess, panicked. Anything the raccoons had gotten into was now inedible.

"How did this happen?!" Lincoln was angry, and not even trying to hide it, they all were aware that this would hurt the entire camp and its children.

"I think I got an idea how…" Chandler waved the lock to the two of them. The key still was prominently in it. It was sabotage as far as he cared.

"What do we do now?"

Lincoln bit his lip. The food in the cabinets looked to be untouched, along with the food in the bags on the bottoms of the pile. The counselors' supplies also were fine since they kept those in their separate personal cabins.

"Go tell everyone what happened, and figure out who's missing a key… I'll rummage up whatever's still safe to eat," Lincoln ordered. Leni and Chandler both nodded before darting off to do as they were told, leaving him alone. Lincoln held his head trying to think as he leaned on the door frame.

"Damn it… what are we going to do?" the teenager could feel the stress beginning to get to him again, his eyes affixed to the storage building, then gazed toward the vault that the gun was kept within with the near dozen locks on it.

"No! We can't go hunting blindly in this weather! We'd just get more people hurt or killed doing that… And the rain will get rid of most of the fish, so fishing is out too." Lincoln mentally cursed himself. There was nothing he hated more in this world than feeling useless, and right now that was the perfect word for how he felt right now, useless. "I've barely touched my rations… even if the counselors give up some of their food each, it wouldn't be enough to outlast the storm…"

His expression changed to one of clear thought when he realized something, the frustration dying out for now. He had a growing stockpile of food. Perhaps…

 _ **"What if I gave up all of my food…?"**_


	17. Dead End

"What do you mean we've lost a lot of our food?!" Ronnie Anne demanded an immediate explanation. They had gotten all the campers to go back to their cabins, after they finished eating, for this important meeting that Chandler and Leni called. The counselors were upset when they heard the news.

"A bunch of raccoons got into the storage building…" Leni meekly spoke, more scared over how upset they were. She always shriveled up when a person shouted, but she tended to equal the matter by shouting herself. It was true for all of her fights that she had with Lori.

"Someone took the lock off," Chandler showed the key they had found in the lock. They let Lincoln keep the padlock itself so that he could close the storage room after he finished with sorting out the still edible food from the food tampered with by raccoons.

"So we're stuck without supplies and the supplies we had stockpiled are gone… who did this?" Lynn asked the counselors. They were supposed to always keep a tight grip on their keys and never loan them out. There were only a few situations where they would do such a thing, and none of those situations had arose at all.

One at a time, everyone began showing their keys to prove they had no hand in this. It seemed to be going fine until they reached Hugh. He could not feel the key anywhere in his pockets.

"What? There's no way that…" Hugh murmured, baffled and desperately rummaging through his pockets. When everyone but him had a key, the reality fell upon him that it was his that was used. The blame seemed to be ready to fall on him then.

"There's no way Hugh could've done it! I helped him carry back some ingredients to help prepare the fish Ronnie Anne brought. And I know he locked it back," Luan exclaimed before anyone could speak their piece, though the comedic Loud worried about Lincoln since they had left him alone to clean the mess back at the storage building.

"Well, who'd have gone out of their way to steal his key to just do this?" Clyde asked, more so worried about a thief in the midst intent on ruining this whole camping trip.

"A lot of counselors and campers came in and out of the kitchen… Bronna might've seen who did it, but I don't want to stress her out," Hugh stated, taking his key back and making a mental note to keep a closer eye on it. He was more worried about making the bulimic girl have less trust in them, thus making their jobs here all the harder.

During their discussion, the group heard the door to the dining hall open. Lincoln stepped inside, closing the door behind him, looking slightly exhausted. "Did you figure things out?" he asked Leni and his newest friend.

"Someone stole Hugh's key and we have no idea who… we might just be screwed," Chandler said, rubbing his head. They had hit a dead end like this, and it irritated him.

"How does our food situation look, Lincoln?" Lynn asked while stepping beside him, yet she could sense that even standing near him made him feel greatly uncomfortable. She knew she caused this to him, and it made her feel simply terrible.

"We'll be fine as long as each counselor gives up a little… there's enough to last us until the storm's over," Lincoln replied, though his tone was bitter. He wished to keep secret that he had gotten all the personal food from the cabin that he had stockpiled up and transferred to the storage building while everyone was busy.

"Well, that's great at least. I just wish we weren't stretched so thin…" Ronnie Anne muttered. As she knew Lincoln had said to her and all the counselors, the campers came first before them. They knew he would repeat that to no end until the job was done.

"We're gonna need to think up other ideas to take our minds off this… the storm's a good excuse to interact with the campers," Carol suggested, though she was making a mental note that her camper did her best to avoid touching anything touched by someone else without gloves or cleaning it, it made Carol a bit worried that her camper would not want to be within fifty feet of anything else that was breathing.

"You're right about that," Sam nodded, looking at the late night. Things were getting darker. It was just a matter of minutes before the rain began.

"Let's all turn in for the night. It's our best bet to hope the rain will be light tomorrow," Lincoln offered. Everyone seemed to agree that getting back to their beds before it began raining would be the best idea for now. Now that the meeting was over, everyone told each other goodnight and took leave.

* * *

"So what's the matter?" Ronnie Anne asked her boyfriend as they were walking to their cabin. She knew he had something in his mind, he always made a certain face when thinking deeply on an important matter.

"I want to go one day without worrying about having a heart attack from stress," Lincoln claimed, looking more irritated than stressed.

"You can be happy knowing you're not the only one anxious right now," Chandler assured. He felt bad for being unable to help his feeling of being somewhat happy about this situation since it kept his mind off his own troubles.

"And you're sure we have enough food for this?" Clyde again asked his friend.

"We will… don't worry," Lincoln gave a confident smile. As long as the whole camp of counselers and their campers were fine, he could care less about what happened to him. However, the group of four's attention was grabbed when they began to feel a drizzle of water start to descend on them all.

"Come on, before the rain gets worse!" Lincoln insisted as he led them on. Everyone wanted to get through the storm and hope that it would not last long, but they doubted their hopes would be met.

* * *

Later that very night, things seemed to be pretty calm. As everyone slept, the rain was pouring outside. The temperature dropped shortly after the rain began, so things quickly started to turn cold, but it was still tolerable. Everyone knew that unfortunately it would not last for long.

Clyde was slumbering away with his glasses attached to the headrest of his bed. While he was sleeping, he swore he heard the door to their cabin open and felt the breeze from it. The junior counselor brushed it off as nothing, but then he felt like he was being watched.

" _Ugh…_ did the door blow open?" Clyde mumbled to himself while getting up rubbing his eye tiredly. He was barely able to see in the dark, with or without his glasses. Everyone else in the cabin was still asleep. However, when he went to check the door he bumped into something in the pitch black. The other three sleeping in the cabin were jolted from their sleep when they heard a loud scream of terror.

"What's going on?!"

"How should I know? It's pitch black!"

"Will one of you idiots turn on the lights then?!"

After a few more panicked seconds, the lights in the cabin were turned back on. They saw Clyde seated in the floor, panting to gain his breath back, after having everything in his lungs forced out of him by terror.

"…Lucy?" Lincoln chirped, seeing his younger sister standing there soaking wet with a puddle around her. The concerned Lincoln went over to her.

"Is she possessed again?" Ronnie Anne questioned him, going over and helping up Clyde. The gothic Loud blended into darkness perfectly so the scare was easier than usual.

"Lucy? Hey, what's the matter?" Lincoln ignored his girlfriend's query. He felt more worried what was so important that his younger sibling would go through all the rain to get to their cabin.

"She's soaking wet like she fell in the lake," Chandler handed a towel over to Lincoln to let him try and dry off Lucy.

"I think she walked through the rain," Lincoln replied, that was odd to him mainly because anyone with their head on straight would run to get out of the storm as soon as possible if they had to step outside for even half a second. After a brief moment when he shook her slightly while drying her off, she seemed to begin coming back around.

" _Agh…_ what am I doing here?" Lucy looked confused. She was confused after noticing that she was soaked, almost like she had fallen into the lake. It was all just how hard the storm had already gotten.

"Scaring the daylights out of Clyde apparently… I think you were sleepwalking again," Lincoln informed the more spiritual sibling of his. He was slightly upset to see how far her sleepwalking had taken her this time. She could get sick from the sheer cold alone, being soaked on top of that only made it worse.

"Is he going to be okay?" Lucy asked. Normally when she sleepwalked she wound up by one of her siblings' bedside, creepily staring at them. Her only brother made a shrugging motion.

"I'll live…" Her brothers' best friend coughed, his heart rate calmed down, though all this did was make him realize how serious of an issue she was having with her sleepwalking. Clyde hated to imagine what would have happened had Lucy wandered into the woods. Nobody would have been able to find her in this weather, nor would she have been able to find her way back most likely.

"Do you want me to go back to my cabin?" Lucy asked. Her brother sighed, looking out one of the windows' of the cabin seeing the rain pelting the window like a hailstorm.

"I don't want you getting sick. We'll let you spend the night with us," Lincoln put the water soaked towel aside. He looked to the Santiago girl. She already knew what was on his mind.

"Yeah, yeah… she can share our bed," Ronnie Anne did not deny the request.

"I was going to say you two could have the bed, I could sleep in the floor," the bucktoothed boy gave his preferred idea in reply. Chandler and Clyde both had a bad feeling that a small fight might break out from their classmate trying to punish himself.

"Lincoln, she's your sister! I'm sure she'd feel better sharing the bed with you than someone she doesn't know. I can just share a bed with Clyde or Chandler," Ronnie Anne retorted with her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently.

"No thanks," Chandler coughed. He had shared a bed enough times as far as he cared.

"Uhh… If you want, I guess? I just don't want to insult my bro," Clyde agreed with it, but he was more afraid of upsetting his best friend.

"Ronnie Anne, you're practically a part of our family now. I just want to take care of you all and make sure you're happy…" Lincoln exclaimed, sighing in slight disappointment at the implication that his girlfriend may not feel like she was part of his family yet, possibly due to their secrecy.

"You two sure fight a lot for being boyfriend and girlfriend," Lucy commented. Silence fell between them.

"…h…how'd you know?" Lincoln hesitantly squeaked, unable to deny it at this point. He was more curious for how long his gothic sibling knew about the twos relationship.

"You know how you're home alone every second Sunday of every month?" She began. Normally that second Sunday of the month was when everyone in the Loud house had the day full with routine plans that all matched up, which caused them all to be out until late at night, all while Lincoln remained in the house.

" _Oh, please no…_ " Ronnie Anne held her head.

" _Yeah…?_ " Lincoln nodded.

"You weren't really alone at all these last two years," Lucy claimed. The teenage couple felt unnerved and awkward now.

" _Wait…_ " Ronnie Anne gawked, "You've known me and him were together this whole time? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Does, _uh…_ that mean you've been watching what me and her were doing?" Lincoln gulped nervously. Every time he thought he was home alone, he would invite Ronnie Anne over to spend personal time with her.

"Lisa asked me to do it for scientific purposes… and yes," Lucy nodded.

" _…oh…!_ " Lincoln fell over with a thump, back first on the floor. The shock and embarrassment got the best of his mind. Knowing that more of his family knew about their relationship than he was aware about did little to aid.

"Lincoln?"

"Bro?"

"I've been there before…"

"Dang it, Lame-o. I told you to relax more…" Ronnie Anne huffed in irritation, aware that the stress probably did this. Though she wanted to faint similarly, she decided against it. She just motioned to Lucy to go back to sleep. "As long as you stay quiet, I don't care how much you know," the Santiago stated, not even trying to hide her embarrassment written all across her tomato red face.

"Don't worry. Silence is a specialty of mine," Lucy gave a thumbs up. She watched as Ronnie Anne went to get the spare blanket and pillows from a nearby closet.

"Just take the bed. I'll sleep with him," Ronnie Anne said as she tried to take care of her unconscious boyfriend. Lucy did not argue with her. It was her choice. Ronnie Anne looked over her unconscious boyfriend, finding how he looked while sleeping rather cute, even if it was rather forced unconsciousness.

 _ **"You need to relax more... A LOT more..."**_


	18. Sleepwalking?

When the next day arrived, everyone made to proceed with their jobs as though conditions were normal. However, since everyone wanted to avoid going in the heavily torrential rain, most of the counselors opted into bringing the food to the campers instead. None of the counselors did like the idea of their campers risking catching a cold in that shower. Lincoln, however, managed to slip by to deliver the food before anyone else, as early as a bird. He received a scolding from his sisters each time he succeeded.

"You actually think you know how to help with my problem?" Lucy was seated across from Clyde. The two were simply killing time with a game of checkers. They were the only two in the cabin. Lincoln, Ronnie Anne and Chandler were off with the respective campers they were responsible for to do activities of their own.

"Well, it is my job… I have a few ideas that might work," Clyde repeated. Before he did anything though, he figured he would ask her a few questions in the hopes that it might narrow things down.

"Have you been alright at home? I'm sure having too much stress and too little sleep could cause it." He knew this inquiry was never met with positive response when he asked Lincoln the same, but he hoped Lucy would tell him without any hesitation whether it was good or bad.

Lucy jumped two of his checker pieces in a row before flicking them off the board. "I'm worried about Lincoln, and so is everyone else… I've been fighting with Lynn less, too," she claimed, her head rested in her hand. There was no point fighting with the sporty Loud, as recently she seemed to be just as depressed, if not more than Lincoln. It did little to ease the Loud family's growing concerns.

"I do stay up late but not that late," Lucy added, watching as Clyde kinged her checker piece. He appeared to be surprised at how badly he was losing. If it was a public contest, it would be an embarrassment. Well more so than it already was.

"Doing what?" Clyde quirked an eyebrow, somewhat regretting asking. He knew she was more into the occult than some gothics her age were known to be.

"Writing fanfiction," Lucy casually said, without even batting an eyelash.

" _Oh gosh…_ and _uh…_ how late do you stay up doing that?" Clyde reluctantly continued, slightly worried about what he would hear.

"I don't pay attention… At least past eleven," Lucy said. He was unsure what to say. It was obvious. Staying up that late was not doing her any good, but he doubted that alone was enough to make her start sleepwalking.

 _"Lincoln said it's been happening more often lately, too,"_ Clyde thought to himself. There was nothing that made sense about it. He figured that Lucy might just be trying to watch over her family unconsciously in her slumber. But even then, it was stretching theories thin. "Do you just sleep in later to make up for what you missed?"

"I take a lot of naps lately… I can't even tell when I'm asleep half the time," Lucy explained. That was one of the more confusing replies she had given him.

"And every time you wake up, you're by someone's bedside, just creepily looking over them?" Clyde groaned, watching his last checker piece get taken, feeling a bit frustrated at how easy he lost. However, his wording seemed to confuse her this time instead.

"Every time? No… Sometimes, yeah, but… most of the time, I usually just close my eyes and before I know it, I'm at another place," Lucy stated. Trying to merely rest her eyes cause something of a sleepwalking episode, but her family only told her about the times they caught her staring over her siblings' beds.

"That sounds familiar…" Clyde tried to remember another time when it happened. He swore he had heard these exact symptoms before.

"You've seen it before…?" Lucy wondered with hope in her voice.

"There was someone a grade up from us doing the same thing. Sometimes he'd just walk away, or go straight out of class. Not even the teacher shouting at him to stop stopped him," Clyde stood up, helping up his friend's sister afterwards. He went over and began to rummage around for some of the food they had been brought for breakfast this morning.

"You know what's wrong with me?" Lucy sounded hopeful. Despite the Loud parents' reassurances, she knew this was not an odd side effect of hormones, and not getting closer to becoming a teenager. It was actually bothering her a lot.

"I think so. But for now, we need to talk to Hugh. He knows more about medicine than I do," Clyde pulled out his radio. He began to turn the crank on the side to begin powering its battery up. He wanted to hope he was right, but if he was, it would be bad news that would upset Lincoln.

* * *

Clyde and Lucy had spent an hour in the dining hall with Hugh after they had eaten. The two's soaking wet coats rested by the door, as if they had been dipped into a river for an hour. Hugh's selected camper, Bronna, was there also, but she stayed a good ten feet away from the three of them, seeming very upset. Her counselor had no clue why, and she would not tell him.

"Well? Does she seem alright?" Clyde was half hoping his idea was wrong, Lucy had the same symptoms as a schoolmate, and if it was the same thing then it would be rather bad news.

"She's alright, but the only way I'd be able to diagnose what she has is if I can check up on her during one of her episodes," Hugh declared, looking apologetic for not being able to immediately give a straight answer, but they needed to be sure before they jumped to a conclusion.

"Well, she was up late from wandering into our cabin… You up to trying to take a nap, Lucy?" Clyde asked his best friend's little sister. It was the best option he had at his hand.

"I guess I can try…" Lucy huffed, "But I don't want to go walking through that rain to go back to the cabin."

"We can do it here," Hugh reassured, not wanting to add another illness onto whatever was causing her current problems.

"You want me to sleep on one of the tables?" the gothic Loud tilted her head.

"Don't worry," the tutor chuckled, "I'll make sure it's comfy."

* * *

"Is everything going okay, Clyde?" Lincoln asked over the radio. The sound of water pelting off him and the howling wind to follow howled through the speakers.

"We're just waiting for her to fall asleep… What are you doing, Lincoln?" Clyde asked, worried, not entirely comfortable with whatever it was he was up to judging by the sounds alone.

"I wanted to check on that lookout tower to see if it was holding up alright," Lincoln claimed. He cared less about it being outside of camp. It seemed like something worth checking on to him. If it collapsed, it might cause problems for them when trying to retrieve food, and that was the last thing they needed.

"You didn't go alone, did you? You know it isn't safe out there, man. Most of the grounds probably turned into mud by now," Clyde tipped down his glasses a little and rubbed his head, wishing his best friend was more communicative when it came to things like this. The forest was dangerous enough without the bad weather.

"It's fine. I've been put through worse," Lincoln insisted.

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure…" he sighed.

 _"Though I wish I had breakfast this morning…"_ that the Loud did not tell his best friend. He kept that thought to himself. He was not looking forward to the days to come, knowing he would be starving in perhaps a day or two from giving up all his food for the others.

"Hey, Clyde! It's happening!" Hugh called out from the main part of the dining hall. Clyde had stepped into the back so that he would not risk waking up Lucy.

"Oh, I gotta go dude. Please hurry back… I'll let you know what happens," Clyde bid his friend the best of luck.

"Thanks again, Clyde. Let me know if ya figure it out," Lincoln said before he turned the radio back off.

* * *

Clyde immediately rushed back to the main dining hall. He was quickly confused by what he saw. Lucy just stood there in front of him, while Hugh was looking her over. "What happened, Hugh? I thought we were trying to let her nap."

"She's not awake… or at least, all of her," Hugh motioned him over. His answer did nothing but confuse the junior counselor. Bronna still remained far away. The young man moved some of the long, ebony hair out of Lucy's eyes to let Clyde see for himself. Her eyes were darting all over the place, her eyelids fluttering heavily.

"Sorry, but… it looks like you were right. She's having an absence seizure," Hugh spoke the unfortunate news as he let her hair go back down. He made the preteen girl sit back down on the bench she had been resting on moments ago.

"So…" Clyde paused as he tried to make sense of it, "Every time she thinks she's been napping, she's actually been having a seizure?"

"You told me that it's been happening a lot more recently, and that's why she got sent here… but if it's been going on for even half as long as Lincoln said, it means she probably has a seizure disorder," Hugh explained to his fullest ability. He was no doctor, but he knew enough about medicine to be able to identify a seizure. Some children that he tutored suffered from them regularly. Lucy's hair constantly covering her eyes made it impossible for anyone to tell.

"That means it's gotten worse than…" Clyde could not believe how terrible their luck was. There was no medicine available for this. They only had medicine to treat injuries or infections and had only a limited supply of that meant to be restocked once a month. The only reason they had no medicine for seizures was because, as far as they had known until now, none of the campers had a seizure disorder.

"What do we do?"

"It's not life threatening. Compared to other disorders, this is simple… she just needs the right medicine… but we're not going to get any until this rain stops," the tutor rubbed his head, feeling bad for having to give such a worthless answer, "The most we can do is keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't get herself hurt."

Clyde solemnly nodded. He knew he would have to tell the rest of Lucy's siblings that were in this camp. There was no way anyone was going to the phone box in this weather, so the rest of the Loud family would have to wait to hear the news unfortunately.

 _ **"Lincoln is not going to be happy..."**_


	19. Heavy Rain

Lincoln stood at the old watchtower, looking it over from bottom to top. Since the rain had started, some items had been uncovered from the mud, including the very support beams that the tower once stood atop of. None of it was looking secure.

"Hey, Lame-o, pick up," he heard Ronnie Anne's voice chime up from his pocket. He reached down and got out his crank powered radio, surprised that it was still charged since he had not recharged it in a few hours, though he knew he would crank it when he needed to cure his boredom.

"Good morning to you too, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln answered while going around doing his best to not slip on the practical mud slide that the ground had become. Behind the lookout tower, he realized that the tower had moved a little from the position it was in the last time he was there.

"What are you doing? Clyde said you were out in the woods," Ronnie Anne inquired. She wanted to search for him to talk to him in person about the unfortunate news with Lucy.

"I wanted to make sure the tower was holding up alright… If it gets in our way, we're going to be in more trouble than before," her boyfriend claimed, so far not too optimistic about his findings. Whatever foundation this tower was once built on had given way long ago, like its constructors' paycheck may have gradually degraded as well.

"What about Trilby?" The Santiago replied, doing her best to not make her worry about her boyfriend too obvious.

"Well… I couldn't really do anything with him. He got caught up with some lock puzzle and I couldn't snap him away from it," Lincoln replied. His camper remained in his cabin to try and solve the mystery of the puzzle for as long as he wanted to. It was slightly creepy to Lincoln exactly how obsessed with puzzles his camper was. Suddenly, he was surprised.

" **Whoa!** "

" _ **Lincoln?!** _What is it?" Ronnie Anne asked. It took a moment for him to respond.

"Sorry, I just got startled by a… Wooden cut out," Lincoln stared at the figure in front of him leaned against the tree. There lay a wooden cut out of a park ranger, holding a shovel, it was painted faded orange colors and had solid black eyes that made him look rather eerie. The wood it was made from was majorly chipped, simply from age taking its toll.

"A wooden cut out? Of what?" Ronnie Anne was hesitant to ask but could not deny her curiosity. He assumed the mascot had fallen from the lookout tower and somehow landed upright, despite all odds. He was curious as to why there was also a small novelty pink mustache resting on the tree beside it, the item most likely had also fallen out of the tower with the wind having plastered it to the tree.

"That mascot they used to bring to school when I was in second grade… what was his name…? _Oh yeah…_ Forrest Byrnes," Lincoln explained, unable to forget how terrified he had been as a child of the mascot. It seemed more like a horror cartoon character than a fire safety teacher.

"Seriously? Wonder why a cut out of him is laying around…" the Santiago scratched her head, finding it rather random that a wooden stand of a mascot would be at a random lookout tower. They did the same when she was young in her classes too. But since the mascot scared so many kids, the school eventually gave up on him.

"I don't think there's any fictional character I hate more than Forrest Byrnes," Lincoln exclaimed to his girlfriend via the radio, before going up and pushing the wooden figure over. He had absolutely no interest in staring at it any longer than he had to.

"Lincoln! Forrest Byrnes is a historical icon for fire safety for our country! That's practically treason!" Ronnie Anne gave the most fake bossy tone she could muster. It did not last long before the teenage couple both began laughing.

" _Ah…_ Ronnie Anne you always know how to cheer me up," Lincoln chuckled. However, he heard a Loud creak. He looked over his shoulder and noticed the tower beginning to lean his way.

"What was that noise, Lincoln?" Ronnie Anne questioned. The middle Loud stayed quiet as he stepped to the side. The lookout tower began to completely fall over. The wood toppled, crashed and splintered. The impact sent mud flying everywhere and tore down a few trees as well

"The sound of Forrest Byrne's revenge," Lincoln calmly said, still in a disbelieved shock at this terrible luck the camp was having. He began to walk away, shaking his head.

"The tower fell, didn't it?" Ronnie Anne heard that crashing all the way from the camp.

"Yup… Just another problem to add to the list. I'll be back soon," Lincoln turned off the radio and pocketed it.

 _"Well, tartar sauce… I'm starting to see why that tower was abandoned…"_

* * *

Hugh was alone with Bronna at the camp's dining hall. He had told Clyde to take Lucy back to her cabin and keep a close eye on her from now on. It was all they could do for now after all.

"Bronna, are you alright? You've been sitting there looking like you're about to cry since this morning," Hugh asked. The young girl stayed silent and in a fetal position. He took a seat beside her. "You can tell me what's bothering you. You know I'm here to help after all."

" _…It's my fault,_ " the bulimic girl whimpered, making her counselor raise an eyebrow.

"What is?"

"That we're in so much trouble… I took your key and took the lock off," Bronna confessed. Her overwhelming guilt was clear. Ever since the incident had been announced, she knew she could have gotten away with it, but she could not bear knowing she had done so much harm to everyone by doing this.

"Oh, _Bronna…_ " Hugh sighed, rubbing his temple. He feared that it would be the reason for that issue. And here he had given her the benefit of the doubt. "Why'd you do it? You know we needed that food," he asked, not angry, but his disappointment in her very blatantly prevalent.

"I thought it'd get you to stop trying to force me to eat," she sighed. He had tried being subtle about it, having her help in the kitchen and prepare the meals was the best idea he had, but as far as he was aware, he had been everything but forceful.

"I know you're going through a lot, and it has to be scary to feel like everyone's trying to make you change from something you think is normal," Hugh exhaled, trying to think about things from her angle. "Now look. I won't tell anyone, and I'll forgive you… if you do something for me."

Bronna looked to him, uncertain of what he meant by that. She watched as he walked off to the kitchen. The young girl remained there in slight fear, but was more so upset with herself to the point she refused to leave the fetal position.

* * *

He returned a few minutes later, carrying a plate whose contents were covered up by a cloth. He rested it on the table before taking a seat across from her.

"What's that…?" the bulimic girl asked, not even trying to hide her fear. She was still unsure of this offer he was making to keep silent about her actions. The smell of the food beneath that cloth got her full attention though.

"Your lunch… I'll take the blame for the food being messed up for you, if you just eat everything here," Hugh simply stated, his sincerity prominent. The counselor removed the cloth, showing mashed potatoes with biscuits on the side. "I know you think that not eating is healthy, but it really isn't… but I know you've heard that a million times by now."

Bronna looked uncertain of his offer. She hated the idea that he would simply take the blame for her own mistake.

"But let me ask you something. I know nobody has genuinely asked you before… why don't you want to eat?" Hugh then asked. No matter what type of doctor or psychiatrist, the heartlessness of the medical world did more harm than good to some mentally troubled people. Bronna was a clear example.

"…Dad always said we'd save millions of dollars if even one of us ate less…" Bronna began to explain, "I didn't understand at first, but I learned fast when I choked the very next morning at breakfast, he had to cut my throat open to help me breathe…"

Bronna then reluctantly moved her small silver chain necklace aside to show the very tiny scar on her throat, which was left from the incident years ago.

"Oh, jeez…" Hugh looked at the scar, shocked by her tale so far. Though he found something very suspicious about what she was telling him. It seemed to be a coincidence so big that it was too unsettling to be natural. "Your dad sounds like a good man who'd do anything for you… are you sure he would want you to starve yourself to just save a dollar?"

"I don't know… I haven't seen him since I got out of the hospital, he may as well be thin air now," the mentally ill girl let out a sigh, sounding more disappointed with herself than anything.

"Well, don't you worry, for as long as there are people with passion, the food will taste delicious, and as long as there are people that care, you'll be safe," Hugh reassured, hoping his sincerity would be enough to make her believe in him. Maybe just a little force was needed from a father figure to help her. "Now enjoy it. You haven't had a good meal in years, right?" he lightly laughed. Bronna did not give a reply. The silence had taken over again. Just then, they heard the door to the dining hall open.

"Oh, Lincoln. Hey!"

"Ronnie Anne told me to see you first," Lincoln threw his heavily soaked coat beside the door, "what happened with Lucy?"

"We found out what's causing her sleepwalking… we also found it that it isn't sleepwalking," Hugh exclaimed. At first the Loud boy seemed happy, but he could sense that something worse was discovered in its place.

"What is it then?" Lincoln was a little surprised when he saw Bronna ahead, eating at a plate of food. Hugh had his back turned at her at that while.

"A seizure disorder. She's been having absence seizures every night, and more often throughout the day… her body's been on auto pilot on and off ever since it started," Hugh explained. He knew Lincoln's worry about his little sister.

"Dis…order?" Lincoln's eye twitched.

"Now, don't freak out. Just know it's easy to get under control, but until the storm passes, we can't get the medicine she needs," the adult counselor told him. His reassurance did little to calm him down.

"Where's Lucy now?" Lincoln did not want to sit around, he had to let the rest of their family members here know about it so they could all keep an eye on their little sister.

"Her cabin. Clyde's watching her. We're gonna have to keep a closer eye on her until she can get that medicine," Hugh answered, and barely a second after his sentence was done, Lincoln had left. Wanting to take care of his family above all else was a goal in his life that he hoped to keep up.

"He's easy to get riled up," Bronna commented, dropping her spoon on the plate with a loud clattering.

"His whole family is," Hugh exhaled a weary sigh, turning back to her. He saw an empty plate. He looked to the young girl.

"I'll tell everyone about I did once the storm's over…" Bronna stared blankly at the empty plate, "I don't want someone as nice as you to be blamed for what I did."

"Well… come on. You can help me get everyone else's lunches ready," the muscular counselor patted her back with a bright smile. He was glad to see her take the first step toward getting better.


	20. Confession?

_**Authors note: I just wanted to say thank you all for the 150 reviews! I'm glad a lot of you are liking this story, though I apologize if this chapter is bad. I don't got much confidence in it, either way. This is Fallen Pens, dropping out. Take care!**_

* * *

The rainy day of camp was going as normal as it possibly could. All the Louds essentially were on rotation duty when checking on Lucy. Almost all the counselors thus far were making genuine progress with their respective campers, though many of them doubted it would be that easy for long.

"I can't get her to do anything beyond what she wants to do, and I've tried everything I could think of," Carol exhaled, her head laid on the table. She was stuck in an annoying dead end with the camper she was meant to help.

"I know what ya mean," Sam was nearby on one of the beds, casually tapping her drumsticks on the metal frame of the bed. She seemed as perplexed with her camper as her technical coworker was with her own. "I can barely get Lisa to sit still unless she's got something to study."

While they were stuck in their thought, they heard the door to the cabin open.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting," Hugh apologized, letting the door close behind him as he walked over to his personal affects to look for something.

"Nah. We were just talking about our campers… How are you doing with Bronna? I figure she'd be the most stubborn camper of the bunch," Sam questioned, imagining that he was making as little progress as they had been.

"Actually, I've got her eating again… Though I am worried that her dad was an utter moron," Hugh huffed out a frustrated sigh. There was no telling yet what exactly Bronna's dad was thinking, but he was a no good man in the tutor's eyes.

"Seriously? Wow, you must be a great therapist," Carol exclaimed, not hiding how impressed she was. Just because she ate one meal did not exactly mean Bronna was cured, but it was still a giant step forward nonetheless.

"Never thought I'd hear you ever insult anybody though…" Sam commented. Hearing the buff tutor denounce anybody was surprising. He was the last person they would expect to throw around insults without so much as a thought, let alone behind someone else's back.

"Sorry, but… her dad sounded worse than any child I've ever had to tutor," Hugh apologized. His anger couldn't be hidden as he imagined that man and his ways. He finally found the item he had been looking for, he pocketed it and began making leave. "I'll be looking over the storage building, and I'll be checking on how Lucy's doing. Do either of you need help with anything before I head back out?"

"Not that I can think of," Carol went back to resting her head on her arms upon the table.

"I do… _uhh…_ I can't get Lisa to stop trying to burn her brain out. Got any ideas on how to help her relax?" Sam requested, more than welcoming of any suggestions here, but felt a bit sheepish to confess she was having trouble with a task that essentially was nothing more than distracting a child.

"Find something she enjoys other than researching stuff…" Hugh told Sam, "But with this weather, you might be hard pressed for that. Good luck!" He headed back out into the heavy storm as if everything was normal, despite his hands being full of so many more errands then he ever expected to have since he first came here. The drum player wanted to hit her head on her desk, feeling that the advice she gained led to nothing but wasted time.

"What would a child prodigy even be interested in?" Sam held her head, feeling a headache coming on from this.

"I imagine she already got sick of whatever she's been interested in," Carol added. It seemed like the only way to get Lisa to relax would be to strap her to a chair. She watched as the drummer got up and stretched. "You heading out?" The long blonde-haired girl chirped, watching the fellow counselor getting her coat.

"Well, I'm not gonna get anywhere by just takin' shots in the dark. I've gotta try and bond with Lisa," Sam began to leave, letting Carol rest for as long as she wanted. The storm was becoming exhausting already, constantly weighting them all with the rain by soaking their clothes. That feeling of constant tiredness was limiting them all to some degree.

* * *

However, before Sam went to hang out with Lisa, she decided to go on a detour, despite its non-safety. She went to where the phone box was. The rocky ground was a lot more unsteady, and the drummer had to do her best to not slip on the puddles of mud everywhere.

 _"Alright, now if my idea's right, then this should be easy enough…"_ the teenage girl looked at the two locks on the phone box. She pulled out her key, putting it into the first lock watching it pop open. She then picked up a rock about the size of her palm and stuck it between the lock to prevent it from closing.

"Wow. This really is easy to get around," Sam pulled her key out. The lock seemed to struggle for a bit, but the rock held firm. She used the key to open the other lock, and just like that, the phone box sprung open. She was delighted so far. Despite how doing so was against the rules, she could not imagine caring less.

 _"Please pick up this time…"_ the young girl hoped to herself as she took the phone off the hook and began to dial a number. Every time she had tried before to dial that number had hopelessly failed.

The endless ringing finally answered Sam who stood still outside in the rain.

"Hello?" Luna spoke up. She sounded a lot better than the last time her dear friend had talked to her. It had been over a week since she threatened Luna to stop her practically obsessive mindset with wanting to help or else their bond would be broken.

"Luna! I was worried you wouldn't pick up! How are things down there?" Sam asked, hoping that the storm was not as bad as it was up here.

"Hey, Sam! It's great to hear from you and things are alright, though the basement's flooded… half expected that. It's why Lisa made those water pumps a year ago after the last bad storm," Luna responded, though hearing the rain in her best friend's background was worrying her. "Don't tell me you're out in the rain right now? You could get sick!" she scolded her. She almost forgot about asking about her family members well being.

"I'm gonna get stuck in the rain either way, no matter where I go… I'm glad to hear you're doing better," Sam lightly laughed, shaking her head rapidly like a dog trying to temporarily get some rain off of her. "I also wanted to let you know now instead of later that we found out what's wrong with Lucy and what's causing her sleepwalking trouble… but if I tell you, then you gotta let your whole family know right away."

"It's just sleepwalking, right?" Luna inquired, not sure how to feel about this, but it did little to make her ease up, "I mean, what could be so bad to cause that?"

"A non-life threatening seizure disorder."

The silence filled the air aside from the rain after Sam answered bluntly.

"I… _Wow…_ Okay, I'll let everyone know," the aspiring rock star told her closest friend.

"Thanks. We can't get the medicine until the rain stops, but she's under heavy watch around the clock," Sam explained, trying to be reassuring about it, but there was no real way to give guaranteed results. "Well, I need to get going. I gotta check up on Lisa, I just wanted to call and let you know how everything was." But before she could put the phone back on the hook, her friend spoke up.

"Hang on, Sam!"

"What's wrong?" Sam quirked an eyebrow, startled slightly from the voice that overtook the sound of the rain.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't come and help…" Luna mused, "When you get back, I'll make it up to you in any way you want. That's a promise.

Sam gained a big grin on her face.

"In any way, huh…? Luna Loud, are you offering to take me out on a date?" the drummer hopefully asked. She could practically sense her dear friend's nervousness, despite her trying to force confidence into herself.

" _Uh…_ **I…** yes? I don't know…" Luna stammered. Sam laughed at her behavior, and it embarrassed the rock star further.

"I've been waiting for you to ask me out since we first met," the drummer hummed.

"R…really?" Luna meekly asked, feeling a little surprised to have her feelings acknowledged, let along entertained.

"Yep, and I look forward to it! I better get going now. I actually feel like I'm about to drown out here," Sam responded, starting to feel the cold setting in from getting soaked in the storm. She was getting far more paranoid of the thunder striking her.

"You better not get sick! You're there to help people, right? Then keep it up for both of us," Luna reminded her, sounding like she had a fresh sense of passion blazing inside her.

"Don't worry. I'm too stubborn to get sick… you take care, Luna," Sam put the phone back on the hook before fixing the lock box back to normal, in hopes of leaving no signs of tampering with it. Thankfully there were no signs of her tampering with it.

"Oh, Luna… Even after you've asked me out, I was still too afraid to tell you those three words… I'll get over it when I come back. I promise!" Sam pocketed her key and began to leave.

 ** _"It wouldn't be right unless I said it to you, face to face, after all."_**


	21. Unfolded Truth?

_**Authors note: Hello everyone, well this is something I have to ask since lately this story hasn't really been getting any real results anymore, despite it being over halfway done. I wanted to ask if you think I should continue it or just put a stop on it? Take care all, this is Fallen Pens, dropping out.**_

* * *

Lisa sat in her cabin, essentially alone. Everyone else was busy. She was simply reading a book about quantum physics, a favorite read of hers, but unfortunately, she had read the book so many times that the young girl could recite it word from word by memory. Lisa heard a sudden knocking on the door.

" _Hm?_ Come in."

After a second, Sam stepped inside out of the rain, closing the door behind her.

" **Haah…** _whew…_ finally. I felt like I was about to collapse," a wet Sam exhaled, leaning against the door. A large puddle of water grew quickly under her feet just from the initial water pouring off of her.

"My… you look like Lincoln after we had locked him out of the house… I take it the storm worsened to this point?" Lisa asked, getting up to go grab a towel from the nearby cabinet. Mentioning that memory of what the family did to Lincoln years ago made her quite upset internally, though she tried to push it out of her mind.

"Nah. I was just making a phone call to let your family know about what's going on with Lucy," Sam slipped out of her coat, letting it plop onto the wet puddle her soaked clothing had already made on the floor. The drummer took a seat at the cabin's small table, feeling exhausted from being heavily weighted by the soaked garments.

"I wish I could monitor Lucy further. I hate being unable to help given the predicament we currently face," Lisa stated, sounding more so disappointed with herself than anything. The gothic loud did share the cabin with her, but when they discovered the seizure disorder, they had decided to move Lucy into one of the counselor cabins to be monitored more closely, until they got the medicine that could help get things under control.

"You need to relax some yourself, little dude. Researching all the time can't be healthy. You gotta have some other kind of hobby," Sam began to dry herself off. She was wondering why the genius child cared so much for researching trivial things.

"Discovery is my hobby. Every new research project is a new challenge to me," the smartest loud adjusted her glasses, returning to her seat across from the drummer.

"I don't know why you research new things though, anything you find out probably won't be able to be done for another decade," Sam commented, though she knew Lisa just summed up the whole purpose behind research. To help the future in a big or small scale to make life simpler.

"Some things can be done a lot sooner than others. Either way, I'm young enough to capitalize on anything I discover… even if I detest waiting ever so much," Lisa retorted. When she reached for her book, Sam moved it away.

"You gotta relax, Lisa. There has to be something else you're interested in aside from studying, it's not healthy to isolate yourself like this constantly… do you have any friends you hang out with after school?" Luna's dear friend did not stop her questioning, though knew she was leaving out the topic of dangerous chemical handling. She had seen the second youngest Loud spill a few dangerous vials before. It mutated a few bugs, which had to be swiftly squashed as result.

"…Not really. I just don't see a point in wasting my time on things such as that, especially since going out into a world plummeting into chaos such as ours is dangerous enough."

Sam chucked the towel to the door by her coat. They were both soaked anyway. Now the only means of having dry towels was by letting them dry in the dining hall and carrying the dry ones around in plastic sealed bags, Hugh came up with that idea but it was beginning to become too much of a pain to bother with.

" _Wait_ … are you saying you're scared of going outside?" Sam registered what the child genius had said. It sounded nonsensical but made a good semblance of sense, when thought about things like that.

"Wh-what? Don't be preposterous. Just because I don't enjoy the environment as many of the others here do, does not mean I'm scared of it… I've been on plenty of camping trips with my family before as well," Lisa argued, but her normally calm composure slightly chipped away spoke a lot louder than her words.

"Luna has told me about those trips… They never sounded like fun," Sam remembered her invitations to those trips once or twice over her many years of knowing Luna, and she did not accept one. The camping location sounded horrible. The drummer though wondered if her intelligence was simply too much for one child of her age to bear on her own. "But don't worry, Lisa. The world is dangerous, but it wouldn't be the world if there was nothing happening on it. Bad stuff is natural, but there's twice as much good stuff as there is bad. You just gotta find it."

"…I suppose…" the second youngest Loud mused, seeming ashamed to be metaphorically pinned down by someone acting as a therapist. Things began to fall into a constant state of silence.

* * *

After a basically never ending silence, Lisa returned to her book. Sam was unsure what else she could say. The conversation had hit a steel dead end. To try and kill time, the young drummer walked to the drawers and rummaged through some of them to find a few pieces of colored paper which she brought over to the table.

At first Lisa did not pay any attention to the sound of crunching and folding paper. But once the noise became distracting did she turn her head to see what Sam was doing. She raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"Hm? Oh! It's just something a friend taught me and Luna a year back. I like to do it when I'm not in the mood to play the drums," Sam replied. After a few brief seconds, she placed the folded green paper in front of Lisa. It appeared to be an origami frog.

"Oh my… I've heard about origami, but never seen it," Lisa picked up the tiny paper frog. It was made from such a thin material, but its shape stayed firm. Sam was surprised at how fascinated the smartest Loud child was with this. It was so simple for the drummer and a good time waster, but she guessed that showed how long she had been curious about this.

"Is that so…? Well, if you like, I could show you how to make some origami animals too… if you want," Sam offered with a smirk, seeing this as the opening for a hobby that did not involve constant brain strain for the young girl.

"Really?" Lisa looked to her with a very eager glint in her eyes.

Sam smiled at that excitement. "Really. We'll start with something simple… how about a rabbit?" She offered. It made her feel good to see a child she was meant to help seemingly making progress.

* * *

Lincoln sat outside of his cabin, staying out of the rain by sitting close to the cabin's overhanging roof. His eyes were affixed to the rain, and he was lost in his thoughts. Trilby sat beside him, still fiddling with the lock puzzle he had, having been like this for maybe a couple of hours.

"Hey Lame-o, it's almost time for lunch," Ronnie Anne spoke as she stepped out from the inside of their cabin. She had just gotten off the radio with Hugh since it was his normal method of letting them know that things were about ready, though in this weather it basically was his only way.

"Hm? Oh… you go on without me. I'm not hungry," Lincoln told his long-time girlfriend, but shortly after he did, his stomach began growling as if the mere mention of food made it even hungrier.

"You're not a good liar," Trilby commented to his counselor. Lincoln felt more tired and zoned out now but guessed that was simply a symptom of not eating. He only had to do this a few days, he reminded himself.

"Come on, Lincoln. I haven't seen you eat anything today… or, yesterday too…" Ronnie Anne persisted, but when she spoke, she began to realize she had not seen him take a single bite of food in all that time, it began worrying her.

"I have been eating. What are you talking about?" Lincoln countered, rather half-heartedly.

"Lincoln," the Santiago girl took a seat beside him, the rain pattering onto their feet with the cold wind blowing past them, "We sit next to each other for breakfast lunch and dinner. I think out of everyone, I'd be one of the few to notice the best if you have or haven't eaten. You don't have to worry about eating, Lincoln. We have enough food for all of us to last through this storm… Heck, Hugh says even Bronna is eating now."

Lincoln had to think of a reply. He was glad to hear the bulimic girl was recovering now at least. "I'm just not hungry, Ronnie Anne, don't worry about me," he tried to brush it off with a bucktoothed smile to reassure her, but it was clear that his girlfriend did not buy it.

They both suddenly heard a satisfying click. " _ **Ah-hah**_!" Trilby Loudly chimed, proudly holding the finally opened lock. "What were we talking about? Oh yeah, he's starving himself, thinking that'll give us all enough food and then some to make it through the storm," the puzzle obsessed boy explained. He closed the lock shut again, resetting the puzzle before he handed it over to Ronnie Anne. He began to make his way off to get to the dining hall for lunch, clearly no longer interested in withholding a puzzle he solved.

 _"Wow, he's perceptive…"_ Lincoln thought, irritated with the camper. He gulped though when he felt the vibe of anger fill the air. He hesitantly turned his head to his girlfriend.

"Is he right, Lincoln?" Ronnie Anne asked through her teeth, feeling enraged. There was no way her boyfriend could be starving himself she thought, just so the rest could be fed. He was more scared by the fact it looked like she was about to crush the lock puzzle in her hands.

"N-no, of course not, Ronnie Anne! Trilby's just joking," Lincoln told his girlfriend, desperately looking for some sort of lie that he could feed her with. The truth that Trilby explained might be enough to make her hit him for this self-inflicted torture, and he would not blame her for wanting to deck him one.

"…I've just been feeling sick, I guess. So much going on at once… The stuff that happened with Lynn that has made me more paranoid than even I thought I could be… now Lucy has a seizure disorder that's been going on for who knows how long. On top of that, we can't do anything because it's storming so bad."

His lie seemed to work. Ronnie Anne easily believed it. She knew what it was like to fall under a lot of stress at once, but it never had been this bad before, but from all he told her it seemed like he was usually able to handle stress decently. She guessed this was what happened when he couldn't deal with it.

"Whenever you feel up to eating, just say so, and Hugh'll make something… we could even turn it into a date if you wanted," Ronnie Anne offered to her long-time boyfriend. He looked to her with a reassured smile.

"It's great to see you being sweet for a change," Lincoln laughed. Deep down, it felt so great to have her to go to when he felt down. Him not hiding his feelings was motivating her to act on her once suppressed urges far more, now that they no longer needed secrecy as much. She punched him real hard in his arm, but despite the violence, the bright blush on her face easily gave her feelings away.

 _ **"Next time it'll be a knuckle sandwich for you to eat!"**_


	22. Determined

**Authors note: Sorry that this chapter is short, but it was one of those "if I don't stop it here it's going to become 5k longer.) Apologies for that, either way. I'm going to be updating faster too just so you know. This is Fallen Pens, doing what most Pens when dropped do, go into another dimension.**

* * *

Chandler and his camper was one of the first to finish lunch. Lincoln though had not shown up for lunch. The other counselors took it as him tending to Lucy, taking his turn on keeping an eye on her.

The former school bully was simply staring out at the rain. Ternance was tending to Errunce, the snow owl looked content by the back of her head being pet. The camper and his pet did not go out much. They tended to stick to one location for a long period of time, no matter what happened there.

"So how did you wind up with Errunce?" Chandler tried to strike up conversation. Ever since he had been assigned to taking care of this camper, he had no luck with making any form of connection with him. There was nothing but silence, and he refused to go asking for anyone else for help until he had no other choice.

"I found her egg when I was young. It was on some stupid hunting trip with Dad," Ternance pulled out a small piece of food from his pocket, letting his beloved owl begin eating from his hand.

"You just took her egg? I don't know if it's alright to do that…" Chandler muttered. It was thievery from mother nature herself.

"I didn't want to, but dad killed five owls on that trip… just because he was mad that he couldn't find a deer… one of them had to be her mother. That's why I took the egg," Ternance sounded hateful of the past. It did make the former party king wonder what type of dad the young boy had. "She's my life partner now… I don't need anything else as long as I have her," the blonde boy nuzzled Errunce. The snow-white owl did not seem to mind. She had become used to this. The silence took over again after that.

"Hm?" Chandler heard the door nearby open. He saw Lincoln stepping outside, looking as lost as his fellow junior counselor was, if not more so. "Oh, hey, Lincoln," he stood up and walked over to him.

"Hey, Chandler… things going okay with your camper?" Lincoln asked.

"Lucy has more emotion than him the only thing he's shown is affection and that's only been for the owl," Chandler replied, frustrated with his lack of progress. Lincoln motioned him to the side to talk privately. "You look exhausted, man," Chandler looked over the Loud's weariness, "has Trilby been giving you that much trouble?"

"I just need to go to bed early tonight, that's all… but don't worry about me. I need to tell you something about Ternance," Lincoln rubbed his head, feeling bad for keeping this secret, but it was why Ternance was at this camp. He was doing his best to hide his starvation from everyone, "I was hoping you wouldn't need to know it at all… guess I was wrong there, though."

"What is it?" Chandler asked. This information could be used to help the camper. It took Lincoln a moment to build up the courage to say what he and Lynn kept secret.

"He's here, because he has a trial in court that starts shortly after our three months here are up… he's innocent in every regard, but the thing hurting his case the most, is that he won't show any emotions or remorse for what he did."

The mention of a trial alone made his newest friend uneasy. "What could he be on trial for? Why are they wasting time with it if they have enough evidence to prove he's innocent?" Chandler found these statements contradictory. His thought process was the same as Lincoln's when he first heard the news.

"If what Butch told me is right… He killed his mother in self-defense."

The tension in the rainy atmosphere increased tenfold. "He…He killed his mom? But… from what he's told me, his dad's a complete weirdo. Where was Ternance's father during any of this?" Chandler was in disbelief, yet curious about the other half of the family.

"I guess his parents are divorced? His dad was never brought up when I asked Butch…" Lincoln murmured, feeling stupid for overlooking such an obviously important information.

Chandler then held out his hand. "Let me borrow your key."

"What? Why? You aren't seriously going to try and go to the phone now, are you? Earlier, two trees fell near it. You'd have to climb over them to get to it, and that's if there's enough space to open it," Lincoln explained. This harsh storm, combined with the muddy terrain, had uprooted several trees in the area. Their luck seemed to be utterly terrible and getting worse by the day.

"Coming from the crazy guy who'd do anything for any one of his sisters. I don't think you have a position to speak," Chandler retorted. Lincoln let out a long huff. Of course, he would do similar in this position. Yet he just had no strength to bring himself to go through that. His energy was not being replenished since he was not eating.

" _Got me there…_ Alright. While you're calling Butch, please tell him about Lucy needing medicine for her seizure disorder. I'd like that to be here as soon as the storm ends," the Loud pulled out his key and handed it over.

"Alright. I will…" Chandler nodded and began to walk away, but after a few steps, he stopped, but did not turn around. "And Lincoln…"

"Hm?" Lincoln quirked an eyebrow, "Yeah, Chandler?"

"I respect that you'll do anything for your family. I want to be able to help people out, too… I want to make sure they don't have any of their paths to the future closed like mine was," Chandler exclaimed before he continued walking on, leaving Lincoln standing there, speechless. He was more surprised by how much he had changed in this short time.

"Still blaming yourself for it, huh? … Guess we really are a lot alike," Lincoln began to head off to find Trilby. He knew Chandler was not lightening up on himself for his own obliviousness to a cruel situation. "I hope you can do a better job… you'll have better success than I have," Lincoln thought to himself, keeping his head hung low as he walked through the rain, with no care for his lack of coat. The rain could soak him any way it wanted. Lincoln felt a sense of sorrow washing over his mind. He just hoped Chandler would be able to get to the phone box. No one had checked or been over there since the trees fell.

 _ **"Sometimes, I think my family would be better off if I was dead..."**_


End file.
